


French Diplomacy

by Rib



Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: F/F, Murder Mystery, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, its kinda like a hard boiled crime fiction, mentions of gore, talon plays a big role
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-12-09
Updated: 2017-02-13
Packaged: 2018-09-07 10:55:33
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 7
Words: 22,247
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8798125
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rib/pseuds/Rib
Summary: On a celebratory night of entertainment at the Lacroix estate, Gérard is found murdered. The last detective on call reluctantly takes the case and winds up in a web of conspiracy as a simple murder turns into an all out mystery.





	1. Introductions

Lena hated newspapers, most of all the print seemed to make a mess of her gloves. It was however an ironic habit for her to skim one while frequenting her typical late night diner. A cup of bland tea in one hand, and the daily obituaries in the other. It wasn’t late by any means, but a slow time for customers to roll in, most at home by now, or perhaps that fancy gala going on.

She scoffed while rubbing her gloves against the napkin before her; those god damned French dignitaries and their fancy parties. At least one thing was going her way though, it would be a quiet night and hopefully everyone would behave and save the homicide for another day.

One look at her watch, and she considers going to a bar nearby when her phone buzzes. The newspaper makes an awful crunching sound as a fist instinctually closes around it. A deep breath in and out, she lets it ring itself quiet. Not tonight, let someone else take care of it tonight. Her gaze flickers to the lukewarm cup before her as the phone rings again.

She leans back in her barstool and slaps a free hand on the counter before answering it. “Hullo, Winston.” Lena twists the seat right and steps off, reaching for her jacket and sliding it on with the phone wedged to her ear. “Yeah, I got it, I’ll be there in 10.” A crumpled bill makes its way onto the counter as she takes off towards the station.

\--

Winston’s office is small, but wouldn’t be terribly so were it not for the stacks and rows of books that lined the walls. Lena had never even browsed the spines, god knows what kind of reading material he got up to. She snorted at the idea of them being cook books- 100 homemade recipes for bananas.

He looked up at her as she came in, and rubbed the small tired eyes beneath his glasses.

“You need a drink boss?”

“What I need is a break.” He pushed back in his chair and crossed his arms in front of him. “I’ve got half the precinct running that French Diplomats party and what happens? The guy turns up dead in his bedroom.”

Lena whistled a low sound.

“Now I have to play nice with the French embassy _and_ the media”

Tracer sighs real deep and sits down in front of him, putting her feet up on his desk. “I don’t envy you, my friend.”

He runs a hand through his thick black hair. “Yeah well, I don’t envy you either because I need you on this one.”

“Nah I’m off this week sorry, big guy.”

“Lena don’t make me beg, I’m stretched thin on detectives. Amari was gracious enough to take on the Backstreet Gunner case, which you so enthusiastically _also_ declined.”

“I’m telling you that old lady did it.”

“Lena she’s blind.”

“So was me Mum and she always knew where the back of my head was.” She subconsciously rubbed at the tender area above her neck in thought.

“Lena please.” He leaned forward held the case file out for her.

She threw her hands up and grabbed it. “Alright Ill head over there, but I’m going to get smashed at his mini bar.”

\--

Her black car was escorted through a maze of police tape to the front of the mansion. She can’t help but gape a little at how bloody huge it is. There’s a gated entrance on the far side that probably leads to a garden, but the whole façade is broken up by obnoxious red and blue police lights.

McCree opened the door for her and smiles behind a nearly done cigarette. “Don’t worry your pretty little head on this one, your being here is just formality really.”

“Oh yeah?”

“Guy was found dead after slipping away with his wife for a bit, we’ve got three eye witnesses that place her in the room with him- a waiter, and a couple who were nearby. We already collected statements and sent them home, the Mrs. is still in there though. You should see the crocodile tears on that one.” The bud flips in his mouth from left to right.

She looked up at the sky and thanked whatever god that was looking after her on this one. “Well isn’t that blinding, was really not lookin’ forward to this one”

He nodded knowingly and shut the door before leading her up the main stairs. “Yeah, she’s got a guard with her in the library if you wanna speak with her, everyone else’s been cleared out for now, I’ll be sure to leave a nice stack for you back at the station tomorrow.”

She pats him on the back and heads inside, pausing to look at how large the foyer is, double staircase and all. Another cop leads her to the correct room and she heads in, reaching for the pocket that hides her note pad and a pen, she clicks it against her chest and looks up at the other occupant in the room.

Her mind goes blank, suddenly she can’t remember how she got there.

Rich yellow irises tinted with the after effects of a terrible bout of tears, flash into her vision and she has to fight to restrain a gasp.

“Are you the detective assigned to my Husbands case?”

Lena chokes on herself at the accent and ruffles a hand through her messy hair. God damn French.

The woman not but 10 feet from her is staring with those cat-like eyes while gently holding a balled-up tissue in one hand. _Relax, she’s not one of them._

“Yes, I’m Detective Oxton. I’m sure you’ve had a rough night I’ll only ask a few brief questions and we can head over to the station and get you a coffee.”

Something mysterious flashed in those golden orbs.

She felt the whole room tilt.

“I will not go anywhere.”

Suddenly Lena was feeling very unsympathetic. “And whys that?”

“My Husband was a Diplomatic Ambassador to France,” she stood up somewhat straighter, and dropped both hands to her sides. “We share diplomatic immunity.”

Lena frowned, of course she’d be caught up on all her rights. “I’m not here to personally arrest you, like I said I only want to ask a few questions.”

“I did not murder my husband.”

The Detective snorted, “how many people do you think admit to that?”

Her companions temper flared. “This is a waste of time; my husband’s murderer was escorted out of here by the police and I am being treated as the suspect!”

Lena’s eyebrows went up at that one, “so you know who killed your husband?”

“Oui, it was unmistakably Talon.”

She used the back of the pen to scratch behind her ear. “What is Talon?”

“You are the police and you have not heard of them?” A look of disbelief crossed her beautiful features. “You cannot help me then, I wish only to speak with my lawyer.”

“Well now don’t get too worked up, humor me for a second all right?” Lena put her pen back into her pocket. “Explain to me how someone gets into your bedroom, kills your husband, and then gets out without any other people seeing him, especially since we have a handful of people who put you in the room with him at the time he was murdered.”

“They are…!” she paused and knitted her brows, “I cannot speak of what they are, but you must believe me, there are many people who would want my husband dead. Gérard is a very influential man and was recently backing legislation that would increase taxes on foreign trade with France.”

“And where were you when this all happened?”

“I was in the bathroom cleaning up, it is not a secret my husband is a very… was a very passionate man.”

Lena clicked her tongue on the roof of her mouth in thought. _You’re not seriously entertaining this are you, Oxton?_ Although she had to admit, it paints a pretty picture. A murder with multiple convenient witnesses, a motive costing merchants billions in taxes on imports, and a pretty bird to take the fall. An easy case just became a bloody nightmare to deal with, she sighed and put the notepad back into her pocket as well. “Mrs…?”

“Lacroix, Amélie Lacroix.”

“Mrs. Lacroix” Lena rubbed a hand within her hair “I want to solve your husband’s murder, and I’m willing to go the extra mile and look into this Talon, but in the meantime try not to leave the country okay? You won’t look too innocent flying the coop.”

The other woman nodded.

“I _am_ gonna leave some cops here though to watch over you, not as babysitters, but for protection incase this Talon of yours comes back, that all right?” she looked down and pulled a phone out of her pocket, not awaiting an answer and dialed up Winston. Lena excused herself and headed out into the hallway. “Hey, big guy, this one’s a mess. Her husbands a foreign diplomat I can’t get anywhere near a set of handcuffs on this one, you’re gonna have to get the legal team to apply for an immunity waiver before we can do anything.”

She shoved her free hand in her pocket.

“Yeah I’ll keep plugging away at it you know me, I’m gonna swing by the house again tomorrow, but I want to put some guards on the premises so she doesn’t get any ideas about taking off.”

She scratched at an odd piece of wallpaper as Winston practically sighed himself into retirement.

“Yeah, all right well I’m gonna head home for now, I’ll stop by in the morning to get everything before heading back over here, have a good night.”

Lena was putting the phone away when she heard heels clicking behind her. Mrs. Lacroix stood a respectful distance away awaiting her attention. “Im going to head out, you do have another place to stay in, right? I can’t imagine,” she paused waving her hand at the mansion, “that you wouldn’t.”

“Oxton, right?”

“Yeah.”

“Is there… a business card or something I can have to call you if I need to?”

Lena’s eyes widened a bit and she fumbled with a standard white card at her fingertips. “Yes, don’t hesitate no matter the hour.”

Lacroix closed the distance and took it gently without breaking eye contact. “You are very open minded to be willing to consider alternate suspects.”

“Wouldn’t be a very good detective if I made a decision without examining all the evidence, now would I?”

Lacroix leaned forward slowly and paused just inches from Lena’s face. She watched those yellow irises trail down to her lips and back up to her eyes. “You’ll forgive me for a little French comfort, non?” Soft lips adorned both sides of Lena’s cheeks in some slow faire la bise before pulling away. “Regardless of how things turn out… thank you.” She took a step back, admiring the light flare of heat coming from the woman before her. “I think you’ll come to see I have nothing to hide.”


	2. The Reaper

Lena gets this way sometimes. Her body is rigid, her expression pained, and her eyes completely zoned out. The grip on her coffee tightens to the point where the top pops off.

Angela who is talking to Fareeha some ways away hears the sound and heads over. She kneels before the woman and reaches a hand up to brush her hair lightly back from her eyes. “Lena dear, come back.”

Fareeha calmly walks over with her hands in her slacks and frowns. “Should I get some water?”

Angela smiles at her, “yes that would be great.” She turns back and continues to softly brush at Lena’s locks until the girl squeezes a bit too hard on the cup and some of the dark liquid spills out and onto her gloves.

Lena blinks and looks down at her drink. “Damn it.” She sets it on the desk, wiping her gloves off on her black pants.

Angela stands and rests a hand on her shoulder. “Welcome back, anything I can do for you?”

Fareeha returns and puts the fresh water on her desk next to the coffee, before standing beside Angela.

“I, uh…” Lena closes her eyes and subconsciously rubs her hands together, the leather sound making a comforting noise. “Thank you, but I’ll be alright.”

“Winston mentioned that the new case you’re working involves a French Diplomat.”

“Yeah.”

“It’s not triggering you is it?”

“No, it’s fine. Just an unrelated episode.” Lena’s eyes softened. “Thank you, Angie.”

The older woman clasped her hands in front of her before her smiling. “I’ll probably have the finished autopsy results for you in a few days, but right now it looks like asphyxiation baring tox results, but we won’t hear back from those for a while.”

“What? Really?”

“There are very deep bruises around his neck which would indicate he was strangled, but it was a tremendous amount of force; his windpipe is crushed.”

Lena’s mouth twitched as she thought of Amélie. The woman had to weigh just over 100 pounds, could she really have the strength required to do that?

“But anyway, how are things with that young lady? Are you two still on for dinner this Friday?”

“Er…” Lena rubbed the back of her head sheepishly, “probably not, we had some differences and that was that.”

Fareeha rolled her eyes. “Another selfish prick with the emotional intelligence of a rock.”

“Fareeha!” Angela slapped her lightly on the arm.

“No, frankly its bullshit.” She turned to Lena, “it’s not your fault and anyway it’s good that she took off now. You deserve someone with more strength than that.”

“Nah I mean, I can’t expect everyone to understand. Doesn’t make her a bad person, just not the right person.”

Fareeha sighed, putting her hands back in her pockets. Then she smiled a wicked smile, “if it makes you feel any better you can come by later and watch me interview a suspect for the Backstreet Gunner case.”

“Why are you so excited about that?”

“Oh, I just have a feeling you’ll get a kick out of who it is.” Lena squinted her eyes at the sly wink Fareeha gave her.

Then her eyes shot open. “No way! It’s the old lady, isn’t it?”

Fareeha shrugged and started walking away. “Guess you’ll just have to come by and find out!”

Lena jumped out of her seat, “I told you that old hag did it!” she lowered her voice to a gritty texture and mimicked Winston, “she’s blind she can’t have shot that bloke.” Her voice returned to normal and carried across the office, “My arse! My arse, Winston!”

Angela chuckled and crossed her arms. “Honestly though Lena, come to me if your episodes get more frequent, all right? I’ll have Winston pull you off the case and convince Fareeha to take over. Seems like she’s pretty much wrapped hers up anyway.”

“Nah, I appreciate it Ang, but I can handle this one.” She spotted McCree slowly making his way to them. “Really.”

“Well I’ll leave you to it then.” And with one last smile she headed back to her office, greeting McCree on her way out.

“Ain’t no way bein’ up this early is legal.” Jesse groaned and passed Lena’s desk, chugging her coffee and sitting down behind her.

Lena swiveled to face his back and rolled her eyes. “Just ask and I’ll pick up an extra coffee, Mate. Ya can’t keep stealing mine.”

“It was cold anyway, you should keep the lid on it.” Lena spotted the fallen top under her desk and threw it away.

His computer made a loud chirp and she squinted her eyes in thought. “Hey Jesse can I ask you a question?”

“Shoot.”

“You ever heard of somethin’ called Talon?”

His shoulders went rigid and she was almost sure she could hear his heart thumping. Jesse turned his chair around and pointed a finger at her. “Whatever it is, drop it.”

Lena’s eyes opened a bit wider than necessary.

He turned back around and started typing away at his keyboard.

“Hey what’s got you so spooked? I’m only asking because-”

“Talon ain’t nothin’ to go chasin’ all right? People who go after ‘em don’t come back.” He turned around and looked her in the eyes. “I’m serious, Oxton. Leave well enough alone.”

Lena looked up at the office ceiling and took a deep breath. _Of course it comes to this._ “Then no better person to help me out than you right?”

He growled, “Did you not just hear me? I said don’t mess around with that lot. Talon is bad news.”

“Talon is a suspect in my new case, Jesse.”

Jesse brought a hand up to his face and slowly dragged it down, disturbing the hairs on his beard. “Damn it, Oxton.”

“What do you know about them?”

“Hey not so loud all right?” he pushed his hands up and down signaling her to lower her voice. “Talon isn’t official, and by official, I mean they’re kind of an underground organization. They don’t technically exist.”

“What?”

“It’s made up of terrorists and assassins. The people who’ve got Talon on their radar are government affiliations that don’t even have names. I’m talkin’ seal team six style level of secrecy.”

Lena’s face took on a look of disbelief. “How’s a bird like Lacroix get word of a group like that?”

Jesse’s eyebrows came together. “Hell if I know.”

“Well bollocks.” Lena crossed her arms and blew some hair out of her face. “Wait, how do you know about a group like that?”

He looked around, assuring himself no one could hear them before continuing. “Because I know a guy.”

“Someone _in_ Talon?”

“Yeah, my old mentor. Used to be a great cop, one of the best. Was in an explosion busting a meth lab… they never found his body.”

“Wasn’t Cap in an explosion like that?”

“The very one.”

“So Jack knows him too?”

“Yeah, they were old partners.”

“Holy shite,” she whispered aggressively. “How do you know he’s in Talon though?”

“I was a detective some time ago. Got a case similar too, someone turned up dead and I was poking around too deep. Ran into his name and freaked the fuck out. Like finding a ghost you know?”

“Does Jack know?”

“He pulled me off the case and closed it. We passed it up to a higher branch and that was the last I heard of it; well sort of. I kept digging though, I wanted answers. Got damn close when Morrison found out. Man, he was pissed with me.” McCree shook his head. “Demoted on the spot, even had my wires tapped for 6 solid months. Had a bunch of suits going through my call records and shit.”

Lena closed her eyes and sighed. “Then what do you suggest I do?”

“Truthfully? I’d go as far as you can into this woman’s life, figure everything out you can about her, maybe even see how she’d have some connection to Talon. Then when you decide one way or the other about her guilt, pass it over to Morrison. If she’s not involved then you’re not involved, got it?”

He turned around and Lena stared off into space, her mind racing with all kinds of thoughts.

“Oh by the way, here’s that stuff I promised you.” He handed her the updated case file. “Now I ain’t no detective or anything, but you got a lot of questions to ask.”

Lena took the file and stood up, heading out of the station with it and her jacket in hand.

\--

The mansion was a hub of commotion again, this time though, burly men were busy moving large furniture pieces out of the house and into a large truck. Lena pulled up and jumped out of her car, slamming the door and sprinting up the stairs with two coffees and her file in hand. “No, no, no!”

She ducked under a pair of men lifting a couch and called out for Amélie, getting no response.

A mover nearby shouted at her to try the bedroom and she rushed up the stairs, standing awkwardly in the doorway. Amélie was there, holding a picture frame and smiling gently at it.

Lena took this time to catch her breath before attempting to knock on the open door.

“Amélie?”

The other woman placed the photograph in a box and turned towards her.

“I brought you a coffee if you like?”

“Merci,” She gracefully headed towards Lena and gently accepted the outstretched cup. “Although why do you look as if you’ve run a race?”

“I saw the movers and I thought maybe you wouldn’t be here after everything.”

“Non, I have been a good girl and obeyed your request to stay.”

Lena’s face felt warm.

“There is no longer any reason for me to stay here. With Gérard no longer here, it is just an empty house with bad memories; so I am packing up my things and returning to France”

“Not all those memories are bad I’m sure.”

“The good have been tainted by his passing. I can no longer find a reason to smile in this beautiful home we have once shared.”

Lena frowned. “I’m sorry to be a reminder of that.”

Amélie grabbed Lena’s free hand, “come, please. It is your job after all.”

They both headed out of the room and down the stairs to the Kitchen. Two bar stools sat at an extravagant island counter before them. The kitchen itself seemed to be the same size as Lena’s apartment. Immaculately white cabinets stretched across two whole walls and housed more appliances than Lena had ever seen in her life.

“Thank you again for bringing me coffee, that was a very nice gesture.” Amélie took a sip and smiled.

“Yeah well of course. I did promise you coffee after all.” She fidgeted in her seat and looked down at her cup.

The woman next to her clicked her tongue and stood back up. “Forgive me, perhaps I could take your coat? It’s rather warm in here.”

Lena shrugged out of her jacket, thankful for the offer.

“With so many people moving around I’ve lost track of my manners.” She noticed Lena still had her gloves on. “Ah, the gloves as well?”

“No, thank you.”

Amélie gave her a curious stare.

“I uh… would prefer to keep them on, sorry.”

“Non, do not apologize, we all have our reasons for doing things.” She disappeared to put the jacket away and Lena took a second to trace a pattern against her glove.

When Amélie returned, Lena smiled. “I have to admit you’re looking miles better than yesterday.”

“Yes well, I suppose it does help that it is such a beautiful day outside. And I am very much looking forward to going back to France and spending some time with my family there. It has been a while since I returned.”

“Ah, that’ll be lovely.”

“Yes, I do hope so.”

Lena played with her coffee sleeve as she debated her next question. “How do you… know about Talon?”

Amélie’s mood came crushing down as the atmosphere of the room shifted slightly. “I have had dealings with them in the past.”

“That’s- what kind of dealings?”

“They have been haunting us for many years. One man in particular, Gabriel has made himself a very obvious bystander in my daily life.”

“What does that mean?”

“Watching me. Sitting at my favorite coffee shops, passing me in the grocery store, tailing my car for miles on end down one way streets, etc. If there was an opportunity to let me know he was there, he did it.”

“Did you notify the police he was stalking you?”

“Oui, but what can they do? Purely coincidental they said, and when I brought up his organization they would push me away, ‘no such thing exists’. It was all very bizarre.” She tapped the side of her cheek in thought. “I knew he was Talon from the start, he introduced himself as so. One day he approached me with a bouquet of lovely white lilies and said ‘Talon sends their regards’ and then nothing else since I’ve seen him. When I mentioned this to Gérard his face paled and he asked me questions about this man and said, ‘If Gabriel ever approaches you again, tell me’.” Both of her hands moved to grip her coffee. “Although of course he never made any effort to confront me after that, and given the reaction Gérard had I did not intend to scare him again; so I just went about my days as usual, after all he was not harming me you know?”

“And you didn’t think Gérard’s reaction was odd?”

“Should I?” She looked deeply into Lena’s eyes. “My husband had many secrets, and many people wished to silence him. It was not surprising to me that a man would get so close to me in warning that he was watching us.”

“What kind of secrets?”

Amélie laughed brilliantly at that. “You are mistaken if you think Gérard told me anything.” Her smile grew. “No he was very insistent that I know nothing about his dealings. He was afraid that I might be targeted if I knew anything, it is the same reason we did not have children.”

“Sorry if this sounds a bit accusatory, but Gérard doesn’t sound like a typical politician.”

“You would be right to say that.”

Lena looked at her, expecting more of an answer but none came. Instead she shifted her attention back to the gala. “When you said to me that Talon was responsible for Gérard’s death, do you mean that you saw Gabriel at the party?”

“Oui, it was not uncommon, like I said, to see him in the crowd of our lives. He was generally no disturbance and behaved rather well at events, so we came to a mutual agreement of peace in a strange way. That is of course until my husband was murdered.”

“And you assume it was this Gabriel?”

“It is true that I did not witness it, but Talon are thieves and murderers; that is their business. If anyone had greater motive or ability I could not identify them.”

“Does this Gabriel have a last name?”

“Not that I have heard. Although he does have another name.”

Lena looked at her curiously.

“They call him _The Reaper_.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We learn Lena suffers from PTSD and has some very interesting character quirks. 
> 
> Anyway I had a bunch of inspiration to knock this out today despite saying I'd probably let it stew, but I got a great response from the community. And thanks to smokeopossum for pointing this out, its a bit of a longer slower paced narrative. And the rest should follow suit hopefully. 
> 
> I went back and edited character names with accents this time around, but if anything seems off please let me know.


	3. What Tangled Webs We Weave

Lena headed to the station in the dead of night, praying things would go smoothly enough to obtain even a bit of information on Gabriel. Unfortunately, she’d have to take a bit of a risk to get what she needed. Cameras would undoubtedly be pointed at her objective, fortunately no one would review the footage if nothing suspicious happened, right?

She approached the security office with a swift knock and threw on her best fake smile.

“Torb!” She opened the door and beamed at the man.

“Lena, Dear! How good it is to see you.” He swiveled from the monitor station and smiled back at her. “But why are you here so late? You should be asleep.”

Lena held up her case file and shook it slightly. “Woke up with a hunch on something, wanted to get a peek before the idea got away from me.”

He scratched the top of his head and chuckled. “You young ones are gonna burn yourselves out working so hard.”

“Nah, it’ll be all right.” She stared past him at the parking lot screen in fake confusion. “Hey Torb who’s that prowling the lot? You got another guard on duty tonight?”

The older man turned back to his monitors and frowned at the unchanged screens. “You saw someone just now?”

Lena nodded her head at the still looking image as Torbj _ö_ rn hopped off his chair, feet finally touching the ground and moved past her down the hall. “I’ll take care of it, you get what ya need done.”

Once the man was out of sight Lena let out a deep breath and booked it to Jacks office, reaching her hand in her jacket pocket to shuffle a lock pick kit into view. Silently thanking Jesse for teaching her how to do this, the door popped open and she slid inside.

She stretched her fingers at her sides and stiffly moved behind Jacks desk, pulling the chair out and quickly rummaging through all the drawers. One in particular seemed to be more of a mini bar than a drawer, and as she pulled the small bottles towards the front one tipped forward and spilled inside. “Shite.”

Alcohol started seeping through the cracks in the side of the drawer and she quickly moved everything out of the way and brushed the sleeve of her jacket to mop it up. She got on her knees to clean the floor but nothing had dripped through. Lena looked up in confusion and pushed at the bottom of the drawer. It had a suspicious give before sliding back and revealing a false bottom. The gap was only thin enough to hide a photograph, slightly dog-eared and faded.

Thankfully it had avoided the spill, and smiling widely on the front was Morrison, Captain Amari, and a man Lena had never seen before. She flipped it over and scribbled in thin slanted script read: “Jack, Ana, and Gabriel – 2052.” Lena reached for her phone and took a quick picture of the photo before replacing it and making her way back out of the office, checking to make sure it was locked as she headed now towards her desk.

The computer booted up, and she leaned back in her chair lazily staring at the photo she had just taken before syncing her phone and running it through facial recognition software. As the application started searching, she thumbed open the manila folder that held all the related case files as well as documented photos of the crime scene. There wasn’t much to go on, no finger prints, no DNA, the door had no signs of forced entry…

Lena sighed rubbing at her eyes. The killer might as well have been a ghost with a job this professional looking. She held up an image of the bruises on Gérard’s neck and cocked her mouth to the side. There’s no way Gérard wouldn’t have fought back if he noticed Gabriel enter; the two weren’t exactly on good terms, or maybe they were. Amelie mentioned Gérard knew him, enough at least to give his name and warn her to stay away. It’s possible he knew what Gabriel was capable of, or maybe the two were even working together. Could Gérard have been a member of Talon?

She ruffled both hands quickly through her hair as the monitor chirped. _Data match._

“Brilliant, now let’s just see who you really are…”

_Document Classified._

“What?” Lena clicked around the screen checking to see if her privileges were registering with the software. “The hell do you mean I don’t have the required rank to access this information?” She sat back stunned. Jesse wasn’t kidding.

Lena rolled her neck in thought and leaned back towards the keyboard doing a key search of the database for anything related to Captain Morrison, or Ana Amari. Every single file had the same required security clearance.

Just for shits and giggles she typed “Talon” into the search bar. Nothing even hit. “Well fuck right off then.” She stood gathering up all her files and checked the time on her phone. She could get a few hours of sleep before she had to be back in the morning, unfortunately she was barely any further than she started.

Her palm itched as she looked over at the desk across the room from hers. There was one last lead before she gave up and groveled to McCree, and she sure as hell didn’t want to do that. Hopefully Fareeha would have an idea what her mom had been up to all those years ago.

\--

Lena had arrived relatively late that morning, the alarm on her phone never went off and she silently thanked the excuse to get a few extra hours of sleep. The station was bustling with people, and the one person she was most interested in seeing had already picked up a perp it seemed. Fareeha was at her desk with a malnourished looking pale kid sitting in the chair next to her. His handcuffs jiggled as he looked around the room and smiled at her, honestly it was unsettling.

“Mr. Fawkes please answer the question.”

“Oh come on, you lot couldn’t possibly need more information on me. I’ve been here a right dozen times at least.”

“You’d think after a dozen times you’d actually figure out how to avoid us.”

“You’d think after a dozen times you’d actually find a place than can hold me,” he countered.

She sighed and leaned back in her chair as Angela brushed Lena’s shoulder whispering a good morning before heading to Fareeha’s desk and handing her an envelope.

“Oi, and where’ve you been hiding this beaut from me.”

“Mr. Fawkes I’d advise you to shut your mouth.”

He ignored her. “You part of the medical team then?” His unsettling grin seemed to grow even larger, showing off a row of uneven teeth that seemed to split his face. “Always wanted to get paid to play with dead bodies you know? Instead I play with ‘em till they get dead.” His laugh was even creepier.

Angela smiled at him, unperturbed and excused herself back to her office.

The Australian whipped his head to the other side and called out to her retreating form. “Oi Sheila, where you off to in such a rush? I guarantee I’ll be out of here later tonight, we should meet up for drinks and you can show me where the axe hit.” 

Fareeha stood up roughly from her desk and slammed both hands on the hard wood before looking up at him. “Appologize.”

Angela turned around and waved a hand dismissively, “it’s okay, really.”

The Egyptian woman didn’t seem to care and she grabbed the skinny guys arm pulling him up to look her in the eyes. He was surprisingly tall for a lanky bloke. “Appologize, now.”

He appeared to have had the fear of god run through his small frame and he choked out an acceptable apology before Fareeha allowed him to sit back in the chair. Angela nodded and headed by Lena who was sipping her coffee from the entrance to the room she still hadn’t moved from. Maybe she’d wait a bit.

It took the two much longer than it needed to be for Fareeha to finish with the kid, before they moved him into a back cell for holding. The taller woman rubbed a hand down her face in exasperation before leaning back with her hands on the arm rests.

“Afternoon, luv.”

“Whatever it is, no you can’t have it.”

Lena sat in the chair that was previously occupied and leaned forward with her elbows on her knees. “You’ve not even heard what it is yet.”

“You only ever call me that when you want something.”

She gave her a dorky smile.

“Well come out with it.”

“I’d like to hear more riveting tales of yer mum’s time on the force.”

Fareeha frowned.

Lena was playing to a tough crowd on this one, Fareeha’s mom had been a sore spot for many years, especially with her untimely death some time back.

“And why are you suddenly interested in that?”

“Well I’m going through a tough spot on my own case, and I really just thought, ‘what would the great Captain Amari do?’ “

“No you didn’t.”

Lena stared into those stoic eyes and leaned back with a laugh.

“Man, Fareeha can’t you just play along once?”

“Lena you know I don’t like talking about my mother.”

The younger woman sighed and scratched at the back of her head, lowering her volume so only the two of them could hear it. “It is important to my case though, that’s the rough bit of it.”

“What does my mother have to do with your case?”

“Well it’s not your mother specifically, but I was hoping I could get more information on how she, Morrison, and Gabriel got along?”

Fareeha’s eyes narrowed. “Where did you hear that name?”

“It uh, came up in my investigation believe it or not.”

“Impossible, he’s been dead for many years.”

Lena held up her index finger and swung it across her body. “Ah, not dead, but missing.”

“What are you implying?”

“The truth is, seems Gabriel is still alive and involved in something I can’t even get clearance to. Which is why I was hoping…” she trailed off in a sing-song voice.

“No, there’s no way Gabe is involved or alive. I visit his grave every year.”

Lena grit her teeth awkwardly. “I guess you two had a bit of a relationship?”

“He was my uncle. Not by blood, but he and I were very close when I was growing up.” She rubbed her right leg anxiously. “If he was alive I’d know about it.”

Lena took a deep breath and looked up at the ceiling. “Fareeha, I’m sorry to have to be the one to tell you this, but he _is_ alive. I don’t have all the information yet, but that explosion Morrison and Gabriel were in didn’t kill him. He’s been seen alive, and working for an organization called Talon.”

Fareeha stood up and pointed a finger at Lena. “You don’t know what you’re saying.”

Lena stood up as well, still trying to keep her voice at a quiet level. “It’s true, Fareeha please, have I ever lied to you before?”

This seemed to take the older woman back, her eyes shifted wildly back in forth in thought. “It’s not possible…”

Lena reached out and rested a hand on her shoulder, drawing her attention back. “It’s hard to process, but I know what I’m talking about. Come on, I’ll take you to meet Amélie, she can explain everything.”

“No Lena you don’t understand. Talon is…” She took a deep breath and steeled herself. “Talon is the reason my mother is missing.”

It felt like the floor dropped out from under her. Talon is…? “Oh shite.”

\--

Lena looked over from the driver’s seat at Fareeha who had said nothing the entire way over. She simply stared out the window trying to process everything.

“How do you know it was Talon your mom was after?”

“I didn’t at first. I knew she was on assignment investigating a series of strange incidents that were believed to involve a terrorist-like organization.” Fareeha turned to her. “She got injured in the field, then she just… vanished, no body was ever recovered.”

“Did anyone poke around and ask you questions about your mother’s disappearance?”

“Yes. Not long after she disappeared I had strange men from the government asking me a thousand questions I didn’t understand. Questions that lead me to believe she wasn’t in fact dead, but MIA. That is when I first heard the name Talon.

“Any information I tried to obtain after that was met by access denials. Whatever Talon is, they didn’t want me to know about it.” She sighed. “And now to hear that Uncle Gabe might be involved with them? Maybe even responsible for my mother’s disappearance. It is a lot to swallow.”

They pulled up to the mansion and got out of the car. Lena’s phone beeped as she shut her door, and she swiped it open to see she had a new email from an unknown sender. She locked the phone and placed it back in her pocket before leading Fareeha up the stairs.

The doorbell rang a few times before a woman in nothing but a white bathrobe and hair towel greeted them. “Lena? I wasn’t expecting you.” She looked up at Fareeha and smiled. “Are all of the investigators in this area unexpectedly attractive or do you just flock together?”

Lena blushed and apologized for dropping by unexpectedly. “I should have called, we can return later if you’re too busy.”

“No, not at all.” She stepped back and allowed them in, making her way up the stairs. “There is coffee in the kitchen, I will be right back, make yourselves at home.”

Fareeha had her hands firmly planted in her pockets as she was lead through the house. It did not escape Lena that she too seemed to be overwhelmed by the sheer size of the building, let alone how richly decorated it was.

“Maybe I should have taken this case from you after all.”

Lena chuckled. “Beautiful house, beautiful woman, you missed out Amari.”

“Yeah good luck with that one, especially newly Widowed.” Fareeha accepted the cup of coffee Lena handed her. “Not to mention she’s out of your league.”

“I am _not_ interested in Mrs. Lacroix.” Lena hid her face with her mug as she leaned against the cool counter of the kitchen.

“Your eyes have never fixated themselves on _my_ cleavage.”

“You’ve never worn an open necked bathrobe before.”

Fareeha laughed and took another sip of her coffee, taking up one of the two barstools in the kitchen.

They sat in comfortable silence, enjoying the rich flavor of the foreign drink waiting for their host to return. In a few minutes, she appeared, wearing more appropriate attire and gratefully accepted Lena’s offer for a similar cup.

Fareeha stood politely and held a hand out, introducing herself formally to Amélie. Lena did not miss the slight blush on her features at the contact, nor did she blame her. They took a seat next to each other, and Amélie took a soft sip before smiling at Lena.

“Not that I am displeased with your visit, but I take it this is not a social call.”

Lena set her coffee down and pulled out her phone, reading the brief amount of text under the email notification before swiping it aside and going into her picture gallery. She held her phone out for Amélie to see of the photo she took in Jack’s office and the woman before her froze.

“Is that the Gabriel who’s been following you?”

Amélie swallowed hard at the question and set her own coffee down. “Oui, that is him.”

Lena showed Fareeha the image as well and she stood up and paced along the far side of the kitchen, biting the knuckle of her thumb.

“Is something the matter?”

Lena looked away from Fareeha and smiled politely at Amélie. “No, thank you for identifying him.”

The French woman, wrapped both hands around her mug and looked at the Egyptian woman. “I noticed the woman in the picture bears a striking resemblance to you, Miss Amari.” Fareeha stopped pacing. “You even have matching tattoos, non? Is she your mother?”

“Have you ever seen that woman?” Lena leaned forward off of the counter, interrupting the line of thought.

A strange emotion crossed her eyes before she looked up and smiled. “No sorry to say I have not.” Fareeha let out an audible breath of air. “Or maybe I should say thankfully?” Amélie glanced again briefly at Fareeha. “Do you suspect she is also involved with Talon?”

“We can’t comment on that yet.” Lena and Fareeha exchanged looks. The phone in Lena’s pocket buzzed again and she drew it out, reading a text this time that said simply ‘read your email’ from unknown again. She frowned and deleted the message.

“I must admit, Ms. Oxton, you are working surprisingly hard on this case.”

Lena frowned. “Did you not expect me to?”

“Oh, yes I had my doubts. Not of your ability of course, but some of the things that I’ve seen lead me to believe that this situation is more than a little out of a typical investigators league. In fact I’m surprised you’ve even managed to find a photograph of Gabriel considering you’ve had no other information to go on.”

“Sounds to me like this isn’t your first run in with police.”

Amélie smiled. “Of course not.” She waved a hand in the air. “When your husband is as influential as mine, you tend to meet a lot of officers. A lot of whom should not be officers, if you understand me.”

Fareeha snorted.

Lena shot her a look. “Are you implying your husband was involved in illegal bribes with the French authorities?”

“French, American, German, you name it - all in the name of political achievement.” Amélie took another sip of her drink. “It should come as no surprise to you that is how the law works, but I can admit with some certainty that it was all for good reasons, non? And by that, I mean no one was bribed to cover up an illegal operation to my knowledge.”

“You told me you had no idea what kind of dealings your husband had.”

“That is why I said, ‘to my knowledge’. It occurs to me that perhaps Gérard has not been a stunning paramount of purity in his quest to achieve greatness for France, so at this point I cannot dissuade such thinking.”

The gears in Lena’s head turned. “Perhaps you know a little more about Talon than you’ve let on.”

Amélie’s eyes narrowed as she smiled. “All of which I assume you’ve come across in your investigation. Road blocks at every turn? Access denials? Threats to keep quiet? It is not unfamiliar to me.”

Lena crossed her arms.

“One night Gérard came home so drunk he could barely stand. The things that came out of his mouth concerned me, so I hired a private investigator to follow him. After weeks of dead ends I was no closer to figuring out the truth, and in fact, my investigator had gone missing. Not before telling me the investigation was out of his league of course; so you’ll excuse me when I admit I did not believe you to get this far, nor do I believe you should continue investigating.”

“You do realize that I’m the only thing standing in your way of a prison cell right?”

Amélie laughed softly. “I’m sorry to disappoint you, Lena, but I was never at risk of entering a prison cell. The French authorities are _conveniently_ on my side. I am simply offering you a gentle warning, if you continue the investigation you might end up like everyone else who goes looking for Talon. And I’d hate for that to happen to someone like you.”

“Someone like me?”

“An incorruptible defender of Justice, non?” Amélie winked at her. “The world could always use more heroes.”


	4. Now or Never

“Maybe I was wrong about you not having a shot.”

Lena elbowed Fareeha on her way down the front stairs of the mansion.

“What?”

“Not happening.”

Lena opened her car door and got inside starting the engine. Fareeha had the passenger door open, but was still standing outside looking back at the house. “Plus if you get together I can hang out at your mansion.”

“Fareeha Amari get in the bloody car!”

She obliged, letting out a final, “think of all the French maid jokes I could make.”

“Her husband just died.” Lena pulled her phone out and started swiping through her apps.

“She doesn’t seem too torn up about it honestly. You’d think she did it.”

Lena deadpanned at her. “Not. Funny.” With her app open she finally ran through that email she’d been pestered about, then her jaw nearly fell off. “Fareeha… you’re not gonna believe this.”

“There’s a lot of things about today I don’t believe, why not add another to that list.”

Lena threw her hands in her lap and turned to look at her. “Why is it so hard to believe Amélie might like me?”

Fareeha stared at her for a good bit. “I meant with Uncle Gabe and my Mother.”

Lena blushed and picked her phone back up. “As I was saying. I got an email before we went in there and the message contents are… well a lot of things? Surprising for one, bit creepy for two…”

“The suspense is killing me.”

“Oh quiet you. It’s about Gabriel.”

“What?”

Lena scrolled back up and read the email out loud. “‘Buenas Tardes, Lena. How lucky of you to be the next in line to follow Gabe’s trail. It has been interesting to watch you struggle for answers, but I’m getting impatient. I need a favor, and in return I won’t send Jack a lovely video about your little midnight exploration.’”

Fareeha shook her head and interrupted, “what midnight exploration?”

“Uh… don’t worry about that part. ‘Gabriel is going to kill a friend of mine tonight and I need you to interrupt him. It’s a win, win for both of us. Attached are the details, don’t let me down, Chica.’”

“Just like that?”

Lena shrugged, downloading all the email attachments.

“Who sent it?”

“No sender data. They also sent me a text from a private number.”

“Well are you going to do it?”

“I’ve not got a choice do I? Someone is blackmailing me into it. Either way I now have a guaranteed connection to Gabriel and I’m going to take it.” She put the car in drive and took off towards the station.

“I’m coming as backup.”

Lena smiled to herself.

\--

“God I wish he’d hurry up, I’m freezin’ my tits off out here.”

The location of the hit was easy enough to find. The day had dwindled to night and the streets were empty of cars. They found themselves at the apartment complex of a seemingly uninteresting programmer, and they arrived much earlier than required. The two were camped out in the powered off car, awaiting the arrival of their target.

“Isn’t it cold in England?”

“Yeah? You think I didn’t freeze my tits off over there too?”

“As far as I know you still have them.”

Lena closed her eyes and made a face at her. “By that logic, you should be more cold than I am being from a desert and all.”

“My father is Canadian.”

“What?” She sat with her mouth open. “Cap sure got around didn’t she.”

“I’d appreciate if we didn’t talk about the promiscuousness of my mother thank-“

“It’s him!” Lena pointed to a dark car pulling up to the complex.

“That could be anyone I don’t see-“

“His license plate literally says ‘D3TH C0MS’.”

Fareeha squinted as Lena got out of the car. “I don’t quite remember Uncle Gabe being that dramatic.”

The two made their way down the street in the direction of the car. Once the door opened they crossed and a man in a dark coat got out. “Can I help you?”

Fareeha grabbed him by the collar of his jacket and slammed him backwards into the car he arrived in.

“Fucking Christ, Fareeha, what the fuck.” Lena rushed over, looking both ways for witnesses and grabbed her shoulder.

“Ten years, Gabe! Ten years and you didn’t think to send me a Christmas card?”

“That’s what you’re worried about? He’s trying to murder someone, Fareeha!”

Gabriel got over his initial shock and squinted. “Fareeha?”

“Answer me!”

Lena pulled on her shoulder and the woman backed off, letting the man stand up and brush the front of his jacket.

“Why did you leave?”

“I was dead, Fareeha!”

“You look good for a dead man.”

“Yeah well, the wonders of modern medicine, or something like that. Why are you here?”

Lena stepped forward and pulled out a pair of handcuffs. “I’m taking you to the station for questioning about your involvement in the murder of Gérard Lacroix.”

Gabriel looked at her like she was missing a few marbles.

“Where’s my mother?”

“Ana? Fuck if I know, try the ground maybe.” He looked at Lena again. “Kid if you don’t fuck off with those handcuffs I’m gonna shove ‘em somewhere unpleasant.” 

“She’s not with you? She’s not working for Talon?”

“What? No, she’s dead. We killed her years ago,” He shook his head.

Lena looked between the two of them, still holding her handcuffs in front of her.

“Why are you like this?”

“I didn’t have a choice!” He yelled with his arms stretched out to his sides. “I literally died, they brought me back to life and now I work for them okay? Puts food on the table.”

“You murder people for a living.”

“What do you do?”

“That’s different, I don’t go looking for a fight.”

“Neither do I.”

They stood in silence as snow started to fall around them. The deep breaths they took came out in clouds of dark fog, somewhat obscuring the harsh glare of the street lights and deeply accentuating Fareeha’s face.

“It’s good to see you again, Fareeha. You’ve grown up beautifully, you look a lot like her you know?”

She said nothing and Lena rattled her handcuffs again.

Gabriel reached into his coat, pulled out a shotgun, and aimed it at Lena without taking his eyes off Fareeha. “Shake ‘em again. Go ahead, see what happens.”

“I’m gonna go wait in the car.” Lena put the cuffs away and headed back across the street.

They both watched her leave and Fareeha brushed some snow out of her eyelashes.

“Go home, Gabe.”

“I can’t, I’ve got something I need to take care of.”

“I joined the force. I can’t let you murder him.”

“After everything your mom and I told you, you still joined? Fareeha.”

She looked over at the car Lena was sat in. “They’ve been a family to me, which is more than I can say about you these past years.”

“I get it, but it hasn’t exactly been easy for me. The government has been chasing my ass just as long. I couldn’t show up out of the blue, ‘hey I’m not actually dead, oh by the way I’m a terrorist now’.”

It was Fareeha’s turn to pull out a gun and she directed it right between his eyes. “Thank you for not killing my friend, but the danger for her still isn’t over. She’s being blackmailed into stopping this murder; so I can’t let you kill him.”

“Is that how you knew where to find me?”

“We got an anonymous email that led us straight to you.”

“Interesting.” He looked over and chuckled as Lena had given up and turned the car on for warmth. “Okay, for now we’ll call it even.” He put the shotgun away. “But the danger doesn’t end with me, or that email. Talon knows about her, she’ll be on my list soon enough, especially after I tell them why I didn’t complete my mission.” He turned around and opened his car door, getting inside and rolling down the window. “No one who goes after Talon lives. Your mother found out the hard way, and if you care about that girl, you’ll convince her to let it go.”

Fareeha shook her head, put away her gun, and smiled softly. “She’s just like me.” 

“Another dumb kid obsessed with Justice.” He started to roll the window up.

“Did you kill my mother, Gabe?”

He tightened his grip on the steering wheel, his leather gloves making a strained sound above the engine. “No, it’s the only reason I can still look you in the eyes.” And with that he drove down the street out of sight.

Lena looked at her as the door opened. “Touching reunion, luv?”

“I’m sorry.”

“Well, suppose it ain’t all bad – I’m still alive, we stopped him from murder, and my tits are still here so that’s something.”

“We need to tell Jack.”

Lena dropped her head forward and accidentally hit the horn, startling herself. “He’s gonna pull me off the case when he finds out.”

“It’s better than winding up dead, Lena.”

She stared out the windshield in thought.

“Lena…”

She started the car. “No you’re right, better than dead.”

\--

“You what!”

The first thing Lena heard walking into the police station the next morning was the sound of Jack’s voice echoing down the hallway. She turned around and started to walk out.

“Oxton!”

“He doesn’t know you’re here yet, luv. Just keep going, no one saw you.”

McCree came in through the front door just as she reached for the handle. “Oh hey there, Oxton, that for me?” He grabbed her coffee and took a sip while heading down the hall to his desk.

She turned and watched him leave. “You ruined the one good thing about my morning.”

“Oxton!”

Fareeha was already inside sitting in front of his desk, looking disoriented from all the shouting.

“You called, boss?”

“Sit down, Oxton.”

She glanced at her friend and received an apologetic smile in return.

“How stupid are you, Oxton?”

Lena sat grudgingly and stared at the floor. “Well I’d not say I’m the sharpest crayon in the box but-“

“He pointed a shotgun at you!”

Lena looked accusingly at Fareeha. “Did you have to mention the shotgun?”

Fareeha shrugged and remained silent.

“I should put you on leave for a god damned year, but the station can’t afford it.”

Lena beamed at him.

“So I’m relegating you to desk duty instead.”

“What, no!”

“I’m passing the case off to the proper team, and you’re going to sit your ass in here every day for the next year and think about how close you came to dying.”

“How the fuck was I supposed to know not to arrest him? I was doing my job as an investigator, and I investigated.”

“You confronted a wanted criminal in the middle of the night with no backup other than Amari, _and_ you knew he was armed, _and_ you didn’t even think to mention it to me even after Amari told you his history?”

Lena shrunk deeper into the chair.

“Bullshit, Oxton don’t you lie to me.”

“Captain, if I may interject, it’s not entirely Lena’s fault. I didn’t inform you either, and I knew about it as soon as she did.”

“Shut up, Amari. I can’t afford to lose two investigators at once.”

She frowned.

He sat down finally and sighed, rubbing a hand over his face. “Tell me you understand, Lena. Please tell me you realize how close you came last night, that the only reason you’re alive right now is because of Amari.”

Lena looked down at her gloved hands and flexed the fingers within. “You’re right, Jack. I’m lucky to be alive.”

“Desk duty for the next month, get out of my office.”

Both of them stood quietly and exited the room, Lena with her hands in her pockets, and Fareeha avoiding eye contact as she made her way back to her own desk.

It was going to be a long month.

Lena sighed as she sat down in her chair, flicking the mouse at her desk to wake the computer up. McCree leaned over her shoulder, the smell of her coffee on his breath and he let out a loud whoop.

“Man I ain’t never seen Morrison shout that loud. You really messed one up didn’t you, Oxton.”

Lena closed her eyes and imagined herself shoving the entire cup down his throat.

“You rob a bank or somethin’?”

“Why did you take my coffee, _again_?”

“You know just how I like ‘em.” He reached into his pocket. “Don’t worry though, I ain’t all bad.” Lena opened her eyes to find a gift card to her favorite joe shop dangling in front of her face. “Should replace the few that I took…”

“The few?” She grabbed it.

“And some extras.”

She leaned forward in her seat in amazement. “I can’t believe you actually did something nice for once.”

“Had a feeling today was gonna be a bad one, felt it right in my gut. And you never ignore a gut feelin’.”

Lena rubbed her finger along the edge of the card and turned around. “I met with Talon last night.”

“You did what.”

“Gabriel, you know him? I think he goes by ‘The Reaper’ now though.”

McCree’s face paled.

“I take it that was your guy then?”

“Y-yeah.” He coughed into a closed fist. “Well that explains the shouting.”

Lena drew her lips into a straight line.

“How’s Gabe doin’? Getting slow in his old age if he missed you huh?”

“He pointed a shotgun at me from less than a foot away. There wasn’t much to miss.”

“You know, Amari and I practically grew up together. She the reason you’re not swiss cheese?”

“Yep.”

McCree turned back around to his own desk. “Should send her a fruit basket.”

\--

Lena took his advice.

Fareeha was overwhelmed with emotions upon finding the edible arrangement on her desk a few days later. Things had been tense between them since the standoff, because neither woman knew how to communicate effectively.

Lena awkwardly pat her back as the older woman embraced her in a hug that threatened to send her to PT for a week. “There now, Luv. It’s not your fault.”

The taller woman struggled to speak without her voice wavering. “I don’t even like pineapples.”

“You don’t have to eat ‘em.”

Fareeha stepped back and held Lena at arm’s length. There was an extra sheen of moisture in her eyes, but if Lena noticed she said nothing. “You forgive me then?”

“Of course, I know you and Morrison are just looking out for me. I don’t exactly have the best self-preservation, it’s great that I’ve got someone like you watching my back.”

“Always.” Fareeha’s smile was infectious.

Lena’s phone started to vibrate and she pulled it out, briefly glancing up at Fareeha before answering.

“’Ello?”

Her companion gave her a strange look in return.

_“Cherie! I’m glad I caught you, congratulations on your case.”_

“Congratulations?”

_“Yes, I was informed not long ago that my passport has no longer been restricted, I’m leaving for France in a few days.”_

“That… that’s great news.” Lena’s voice caught in her throat.

_“Oui, I have some final arrangements to discuss about the house and a few more things to pack, but I am_ so _looking forward to returning and it’s all thanks to you. We should celebrate, non? How about dinner tomorrow, my treat.”_

“S-sounds lovely.”

_“Bien, my place around 7? Wear something nice.”_

The call ended and Lena collapsed in the chair beside Fareeha’s desk.

“Uh?”

“Amélie’s going back home.”

“To France?” Her eyebrows shot up.

Lena nodded in return and threw her head back against the chair.

“She’s sure in a rush to leave.”

“Do you blame her? She’s been stuck here waiting for the law to tell her she didn’t murder her husband so she can go back to her family. Probably have a funeral or something over there.” Lena closed her eyes and ran a hand through her hair. “Sides, it’s not like she’s got any reason to stay, right?”

Fareeha frowned. “So that’s it?”

“She invited me to a celebratory dinner tomorrow night, to thank me for helping her.”

“And after that you’re just going to let her go?”

“You say that like I’ve got some kind of investment here.”

Fareeha put her hands in her pockets. “It’s obvious you like her.”

“It’s not my place to get involved.”

Fareeha sighed and collapsed in her chair, mimicking Lena’s position.

“Oh no, what’s wrong with you two?” Lena looked up and smiled lightly at the blonde woman standing over her.

“Lena’s got lady problems.”

“It’s a bit more complicated than that, give me some credit.”

“Lena’s going on a date tomorrow night with a woman who is leaving the country.”

“It’s not a date.”

Angela quirked an eyebrow and rested a hand on Lena’s shoulder. “How long will she be out of the country?”

“Probably indefinitely, I don’t think she’s got any reason to come back.”

“Then why the date?” Angela frowned.

“We’re celebrating her departure.”

“Do you like her?”

“It’s complicated.”

“Well, at the very least give her a reason to come back.” Angela ended that sentence with a wink and handed Lena the stack of papers she was holding. “Jack wants these done by the end of the week.”

“Angela.” Lena drew the last vowel out in a whine.

“I heard you were nearly on my table, mein Freund. If you’re still interested I’m sure it can be arranged.” She nodded to Fareeha and headed back to her office.

“Not gonna lie mate, Angela scares me more than Gabriel.”

Fareeha laughed and shook the mouse on her desk, sitting up. “You’re not kidding.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You might've noticed the rating in this chapter jumped to M because of the language. Next chapter I'm kicking the rating up to E for sexual content, I'll set another warning at the start of it, but just a heads up for now. 
> 
> Thank you for showing interest thus far!


	5. Consequences of Probability

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The chapter rating has been increased to Explicit for sex, and graphic depictions of violence, please proceed accordingly.

Lena tugged nervously at the collar of her freshly pressed button down. It was one thing to dress formally for work, but suddenly the suit felt like it was suffocating her; especially the heavy ass jacket with that stupid pocket square Fareeha insisted she wear. She casually waited for the door to open as she had rung it a few times now, getting antsy and setting her hands in her pockets. Lena turned around and looked down the driveway at her newly detailed car and frowned. Maybe she should have rented something fancier for the occasion?

The door behind her opened, and Lena turned to take in the sight of her date absolutely stunning in a gorgeous purple dress with a long thigh split and equally low neckline. Her hair tumbled past her shoulders to the lowest part of her back, and the clutch she held flitted nervously between both hands as she stood there for Lena’s approval.

“You…” Lena turned her head to the side and coughed politely to stop from staring. “You look great, all set then?”

Seeming happy with the response, Amélie smiled and held out a hand as Lena guided her down the front steps and opened the car for her to get in.

The trip to their destination was a bit unexpected as Amélie guided them through a strange series of twisted paths and back alleys to arrive at a quiet underground parking garage. The elevator took them up a rather uninteresting building to a rooftop restaurant absolutely packed with other well-dressed clientele.

One look at Amélie and the host guided them to a private booth that overlooked the waterfront, Lena suddenly feeling way more anxious about the situation than she anticipated.

“I don’t stick out too badly do I?” She nervously asked as she unfolded the napkin in her lap.

“Non, you look wonderful.”

Lena cocked her smile to the side in a bashful expression. “So, are we not supposed to have menus or…?”

“It is a rather special place, you do not decide the food, the chef prepares it and it is a mystery when it arrives.”

“What if you don’t like what they make?”

“Oh trust me, you will not be disappointed.” She winked and looked up at the waiter as he introduced himself and inquired about their beverages. Amélie ordered a wine Lena couldn’t ever hope to pronounce almost exclusively having the conversation in French and thanked him at his departure.

“So… great news that, you being exonerated and all. I can’t describe how happy I am to have helped however I could.”

Amélie smiled so gently Lena almost melted. “You have gone above and beyond my expectations, Chéri. I am so grateful to have had the pleasure of working with you.” 

“And you look great, I mean you always look great, but especially recently. Not because of the dress, but emotionally.” Lena paused and looked down at her gloved hands which were resting in front of her on the table cloth. “I’m making an idiot out of myself.”

“You are doing great, you do not have to try so hard to impress me. It is a simple dinner between friends, non?”

Lena gave a resolved nod. “I was trying to say you seem very healthy since the first time we met, you smile more.”

“What can I say, I have had you looking out for me. I can admit at first I was afraid of all the uncertainties, but taking a step back and looking at it from all sides, it was not something I could not handle.”

The waiter came back with their wine and delicately poured them each a glass before setting it down and excusing himself again.

“And despite the tragedy, life must go on.” She aerated the glass for a bit, leaning it in slightly to smell the sweet scent. “Gérard would roll over in his grave at the thought of me giving up.”

“You don’t have to force it though.” Lena frowned. “You have every right to have bad days or times when you don’t want to deal with anyone.”

Amélie shook her head politely. “It is not forced around you, I am genuinely happy to have your company.”

A brief but content quiet settled over them before Lena tugged at the hem of her napkin. “So are you staying with family when you go back?”

“I am not sure yet. Plans have been made so hastily I doubt any of them have time to accommodate me.” She laughed.

“What? But you’re family!”

“They are Gérard’s family, and while very polite I do not think that they very much took to me.”

“How could anyone not-”

“I have made some mistakes that are not forgivable.” She set her glass down. “I do not intend to force everyone to welcome my presence. Of course, I do have some family left from the war, but similarly we are not on speaking terms. Fortunately returning to work will be a welcome relief.”

“You have a job then? Sorry, career? Feels rather rude of me to not even think you’d work.”

She nodded. “I have a small job, it is not anything worth mentioning, but it does keep me busy and I get to travel to some beautiful places and meet a lot of interesting people.”

“That’s all that matters then innit? I bet you can’t wait to get back to it.”

“Oh certainly, it’s one of the few things anymore that makes me feel _alive_.”

The rest of dinner went rather well, they fell into easy conversation about a variety of interests, Lena being surprised that they shared similar taste in movies and Amélie admitting she had a brief but wildly successful past in ballet.

The food was excellent, and Lena made a motion to go for the check, but one glance at Amélie’s determined stare set her hand back in her lap. There was no way she’d be winning that fight, and as she looked around the roof, she decided she probably didn’t want to. Something about the experience made her wallet burn in response.

The drive back was quiet, both basking in a satisfying full sensation, feeling a bit tired due to the generous amount of wine they’d also consumed - Lena obviously declining once she knew she’d reached her driving limit.

Upon reaching Amélie’s house, Lena jumped out and ran to get the door for her, helping her out and up the stairs as before standing outside the mansion and shifting nervously on her feet.

“Thank you for dinner, Amélie. Honestly, I had a really great time, I’m happy that everything worked out for the best.” She brought a hand up to scratch at the back of her head. “I truly am going to miss you when you go back home.”

Her companion having opened the door, looked to her and smiled. “Usually goodbyes are meant for actual departures, or do you mean to tell me you won’t join me inside for some coffee?”

Lena raised an eyebrow and smirked. “I never could turn down a cup. Americans may not understand the finesse of a great tea, but bollocks if they haven’t gotten me hooked on the black stuff.”

Seems like Lena could navigate the house blindfolded with how many times she’d been lead to the kitchen. They stopped off first to a closet where Lena hung her jacket, and politely took a seat at the island once they reached their destination. Amélie set to work programing the machine as Lena looked around at how empty the place felt with most of the furniture gone. It seemed that just the bare bones remained: chairs to sit on, a table to eat at.

Reality was coming down hard on her, and it made her chest tighten. It scared her how easy it was to fall for this woman, as if she’d been set on earth specifically for Lena. She smiled as she thought of a pretty purple bow wrapped around Amélie’s midsection.

The taller woman turned and smirked at Lena. “What’s made that expression?”  

“Just thinking about how mysterious the world is.”

“Oh?”

“I almost didn’t even take your case, I was supposed to be on vacation. It really was an odd series of events that lead here. I don’t regret one bit of it.”

“Neither do I.”

Lena stood and walked over to Amélie, she bravely brought a hand up and softly brushed it against the side of the older woman’s face, looking into her eyes as she tucked a stray hair behind her ear.

The alarm on the machine beeped alerting its finish, and they jumped apart.

Lena made to reach for an empty mug when a hand came down and grabbed her around the wrist. She looked at it and swallowed harshly dragging her eyes up and meeting a piercing gaze that was almost predatory in nature.

She was pushed roughly against the counter, Amélie’s hand tracing a dangerous line from the base of her throat down the center of her chest, stopping just short of her belly button. “I am not particularly fond of coffee.” Amélie’s eyes closed just enough to see Lena slightly through her long full lashes.  

“Y-ya don’t say?” Lena all but squeaked.

“Oui.” Amélie’s hand trailed back up and tugged lightly at the collar of her shirt, seeming to straighten it a bit before resting just where her top button started. “In truth, I have other intentions for how we can end the night.” The top button popped open as Amélie pulled at the fabric.

Lena looked down at the hand working the second button out of its hole, and a passing voice told her she should probably stop it, but the stirring in her core wouldn’t let her move.

The second button freed itself, as well as the remaining line with a more than swift tug from the woman now leaning her hips against Lena’s, pinning her against the island. “I have always thought the best company came from another woman.”

Her abdomen now completely exposed, Lena shivered as a chill of cold air brushed the soft hairs on her stomach.

The hand that had busied itself with her shirt was now running up from the start of her pants to the elastic band of her sports bra, a single finger pulling at it lightly. “Lena… I want you to _fuck_ me.” Amélie’s other hand chose that specific moment to cup Lena through her trousers, setting the girls spine rigid with a sharp intake of breath.

Lena grabbed the hand at her bra around the wrist and yanked her forward, spinning so that Amélie was now pressed against the counter. She used her strength to hoist the woman to sit on the marble top and busied both hands in her long black hair as she assaulted her mouth in a furious kiss.

Alarms went off in her mind, but the almost painful pulse of blood rushing to her head drowned it out as both women clung desperately to each other, trying to breathe through the kiss, lungs screaming for air.

The rest of Lena’s shirt was roughly removed as Amélie tugged the fabric back over her shoulders the cuffs getting caught on her gloves before being pulled over them and it hit the ground, her bra not far behind. Lena now moved her hands to the hem of Amélie’s dress and pulled it up, over her head, using the opportunity to run her lips along the woman’s collar bone, sucking lightly at the divot between it and her neck.

Amélie threw her head back and put both hands around the back of Lena’s neck, holding her in place as the girl bit and sucked blood to the surface before kissing her way down the center line of her body. The soft expansion of her slender stomach puffed into Lena’s mouth with each deep breath, and she brought her hands around Amélie’s back, running up and down the raised surface of her spine; the leather tickling her skin before settling on the woman’s ass which she grabbed roughly.

A high-pitched sound came from those dark purple lips, and her hands came back around to massage soft needy mounds. A tongue dipped into her belly button as she leaned back on both elbows, her bones shifting uncomfortably against the hard surface. Soon her heels were pulled off and dropped unceremoniously at Lena’s feet. The young woman now stood between her legs, both hands holding her legs up by the thighs, and pinning them to her waist where the friction kept them in place.

Lena pulled Amélie’s pelvis closer to the edge of the counter top and it sent a wave of pleasure through her body as her clit banged against the button of Lena’s pants. She bucked at the contact which left a lewd smirk on her companion’s face. “I’ve not even got your pants off yet, Luv. Where’s the fire.”

“Your-” Amélie thrust her hips against the hard metal object again, “merde.”

Lena looked down and saw where the contact was met before laughing and gripping hold of Amélie’s hips a bit too tight. “Shoulda said so, Luv.” Amélie nearly screamed as Lena used her hands to pull them roughly together, pumping against her, and repeatedly rubbing the button against the woman’s aching clit.

Pale arms drew forward, and wrapped around Lena’s shoulders as Amélie buried her head against Lena’s neck. The pounding sensation impossibly getting faster.

A mumble of French curses spilled out of the woman riding her as Lena began to bite gently at the shoulder pressed against her lips. Hard nipples raked against the underside of Lena’s boobs, and she closed her eyes, focusing on keeping a steady rhythm as her own excitement started to trail down her legs. One of Amélie’s hands made its way down her back and into the hem of her pants, massaging the flesh there and Lena thrust off center, frustratingly stepping back and removing her trousers, underwear and shoes.

Amélie’s underwear too were discarded as Lena then carried her to the breakfast table, the lower surface allowing her to position a leg over her shoulder and prop her own knee on the smooth wood. She then brought their pelvises together, eyes nearly rolling back in her head at how wet Amélie was. They awkwardly slid against each other before a successful rhythm was found and Lena leaned forward, meeting Amélie’s lips in an awkward kiss as their bruised lips rubbed against each other between the frantic humping.

Lena’s right hand was brought to Amélie’s sex by shaking digits, and she obliged using her teeth to pull off the leather glove and inserting two fingers into the woman’s hot core, continuing to pump, grinding against her own hand as she thrusted in.

The woman below her was no longer cursing, reduced to a mumbling of incoherent sentences with gasps and high moans between them. Suddenly her back arched, her pelvis pushed strongly against Lena. Her inner walls contracted and the muscles started to pulse against her fingers as the loudest sound yet tore from Amélie’s throat, her spine rocking back and forth as a powerful orgasm coursed through her body. Lena cursed and slowed her fingers down, slowly drawing them against the front of Amélie’s inner wall to help her ride out the contractions.

Once the woman before her was finished, Lena reached down and frantically rubbed at her own clit, getting desperately close before grabbing Amélie again and giving a few last thrusts, hunching over and stimulating herself through the orgasm by rocking against older woman’s dripping sex.

Lena collapsed on the warm body beneath her, breathing heavily, legs too shaky to stand on. Her face lay flat against the wood surface unsure if she would ever move again as a gentle hand came down and raked itself through her hair, massaging the scalp in a wordless thank you.

Silence took over for a moment before Amélie’s chest started to rumble as an infectious giggle erupted from her mouth.

Lena heard it and started laughing too, her high swimming beneath the surface of reality, light headedness not allowing her to pick herself up as both women just lay together and laughed. Any tension that remained was wiped away as a pair of hands cupped underneath Lena’s jaw and drew her in for the sweetest kiss of all; a kiss that melted any doubt inside of her and brought a brilliant smile to her lips.  

“Vous étiez parfait, Chéri.”  

Brown eyes revealed themselves as Lena finally looked up and gazed into a pool of gold so rich she thought she might drown in them, and frighteningly she found herself thinking she’d love nothing more.  

\-- 

After a while Lena reluctantly stood, taking a dizzying step back before Amélie grabbed her ungloved hand and kissed the back of it. A long eager tongue swiped across her digits, cleaning the arousal off before bending them back to lick the underside. A pause and she leaned back in question, wondering about the raised surface her tongue brushed against. “What is…?”  

Lena yanked her hand back as if experiencing a burn and gripped at her wrist. She looked around hastily for the discarded glove and put it back on, setting to work finding the remainder of her clothes strewn about the kitchen.  

“Lena?” 

The younger woman said nothing as she pulled her pants on, sans underwear and fumbled for the zipper.  

“Lena.”  

The sound of her name given in such a commanding tone set her rigid and she stopped, dropping her arms and refusing to look up.  

Amélie stood from the table and brushed one of her hands under Lena’s messy bangs, pushing them back and directing her to meet her eyes. “Why do you have the French Omnic Forces logo branded on your palm?”  

Lena’s eyes flickered back and forth between left and right gold pupils. “I…” Her eyes stung and she pulled away, picking her shirt, bra and shoes off the floor, throwing the bra on and not even bothering to button the shirt.  

“Lena…”  

Halfway through the entrance to the kitchen, the younger woman paused and took a deep breath. “It was an accident, Luv. You’ll forgive me for not wanting to remember.”  

Amélie chased her out of the kitchen and to the closet where her jacket was stored. “Lena if you think I’m offended or judging you in anyway it’s not true.” 

Lena turned to look at her, a single tear streaming down her face. “How could you not judge me? I’m branded with a symbol that took the lives of millions of people, _your_ people.” 

“But you are no omnic, Chéri. Surely you can’t think I believe you to have fought on their side?”  

“You wouldn’t be the first.” 

“Oh, Lena…” Amélie rested a soft hand on the girl’s cheek. “You do not have to tell me, but know that there is nothing on Earth that could convince me you have ever done wrong. Your heart is one of a kind.” The hand moved from her face to her chest and stayed there.  

Lena could feel her skin pulse against the hand, she looked up and smiled softly. “Thank you.”  

Amélie nodded and took both of Lena’s wrists pulling her away from the closet and towards the main stairs. “The night is still young and we’ve not much time before my departure, stay with me tonight?”  

“Of course.” How could she say no?  

\-- 

The night was peaceful, it had been a while since Amélie slept that well. Dawn had barely broken, and the soft orange rays were obscured from her vision behind the silhouette of Lena, sitting up eerily still in the morning light. The sheets were pooled around her waist, her torso completely bare except a soft glow along her outline.  

Amélie sat up slowly and reached an arm around Lena’s stomach, leaning forward to kiss a trail up her sensitive spine.  

Lena’s voice cracked slightly, hoarse from slumber as she stared out the adjacent window in a trance. “I was in a plane crash.”  

Amélie said nothing, she stilled and waited for an explanation.  

Lena turned slightly, just enough for her companion to see her profile. “When I enlisted in the British Airforce during the Omnic Crisis.” A pause. “At that time, half of France’s forces were Omnic, and when the corruption spread they lost their entire Airforce to the enemy. Almost overnight French bombers unleashed hell on major cities with no opposition. The government panicked; they enlisted the help of the English who were still using human pilots to halt the devastation. 

“Unfortunately, the Omnics were ace fighters. The survival chances of a human pilot during the Crisis were worse than world war two, and it didn’t help that the enemy had a knack for hacking into communications and relaying false information to friendly forces. My squadron flew straight into an ambush.  

“One of the enemy dogfighters lost an engine and careened into my jet, piercing the hull and dragging me and my gunner to a forest down below. British planes at the time didn’t have ejector seats; the cost was too much when you take into account the habit Omnic fighters had of shooting down parachutes. You had a better chance of hitting the ground and surviving. 

“And incredibly that’s what happened. The trees clipped the wings of my plane just enough to keep it from turning into a pile of scrap metal, but I was ejected anyway. I woke up in a cloud of smoke too thick to see, and yelled for my gunner, following the trail of light ahead of me. His body was pinned beneath the twisted torso of the enemy.  

“I reached for the metal body to pull it off, burning my hands in the process, but even then, I managed to move it. Turned out the Omnic was the only thing keeping my gunner together. As soon as I pulled it off I realized that he had been severed in half in the fall, his body in two halves among the burning wreckage of our jet.  

“I started to hyperventilate, and the smoke inhalation knocked me out. Thankfully the fire alerted a recovery team, and I woke up in a hospital three days later.” Lena turned back and looked down at her uncovered hands.

“Recovery was difficult - skin grafts, weeks of rehabilitation, compression gloves to reshape my hands. And after everything I still had nerve damage to the point where I’d never fly again, and a sickening scar to remind me every time I looked down. Even now my hands sometimes itch with a phantom pain I can’t scratch, but even that’s not the worst of it. Not even the nightmares I’ve grown accustom to, or the therapy for my PTSD.  

“The worst part was the stares, the names, the shouting. I’m a miracle, but I feel like a monster. Do you have any idea what that’s like?” 

Amélie shifted her body and pressed her front against Lena’s back, resting her chin on the girl’s shoulder. “You are not a monster, you are a martyr. Those that do not find value in your sacrifice cannot put judgement on your being.” She reached for Lena’s right hand and brought it up towards them, rubbing her thumb along the raised scar before bringing it to her lips and kissing it. “You are beautiful, Lena.”  

With their faces pressed together, Amélie could feel the cold wet tell of Lena’s emotion, as it ran between their skin. She closed her eyes and sighed, squeezing tightly against the small body in her arms.

\-- 

Lena didn’t have work that morning, she laid curled up in bed as Amélie moved around the room, collecting things.

Despite everything, Amélie was still leaving. Watching her flit about the room created a gnawing hunger in her chest, a hunger that had previously been a cold hollow pressure. She wrapped herself more tightly in the sheets and closed her eyes, willing her body to welcome sleep again. 

“Lena are you going to lay in bed all day?”  

Her response was a loud trailing groan.  

“Lena.”  

“What is the alternative? Help you pack so you leave sooner?”  

“Chéri my plane will not arrive any quicker regardless of how quickly I pack.” Lena sat up and stubbornly threw the covers across her legs.

“I’m not in a hurry to see you go.”  

Amélie made her way back to the bed and sat on the edge, facing Lena. She reached a hand out lightly and swept the girls unruly bangs away from her eyes with a smile.

“I am not in a hurry to leave.” She playfully tweaked one of Lena’s nipples as she stood back up and left the room. “Get dressed, I’ll make some coffee.”  

“You don’t even like coffee,” she shouted.  

“Whoever told you that?” Lena’s jaw dropped, and she slapped the mattress with both hands, jumping out of bed and fumbling to get dressed.  

\-- 

“Wow.” Fareeha’s eyes were nearly fully open. “How domestic.” They then narrowed in a sly smile.  

“Oh, please.” Lena took a sip from her cup and frowned looking down at the unsatisfying liquid.  

“I can’t believe she still left after all that.”  

“Yeah, well she’s a busy woman, got shite to do and all that.” Lena placed her cup on the desk, abandoning it.  

“Did she say she was coming back?”  

“No.”  

“Did you ask?”  

“I was afraid of the answer so I avoided it.”  

“Lena,” Fareeha sighed, standing up. “Things will work out, you have luck on your side.” 

She flexed the leather on her fingers, opening and closing her fist as she shook her head. “Luck is a double-edged sword.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was a beast of a chapter to knock out, I'm not sure how much more we've got left, I'll be wrapping it up pretty soon. Things are going to climax from here on out, thanks again for all your encouragement and support I'm really getting into this one. 
> 
> Also no one can convince me Lena isn't a top, I will fight you.


	6. What Really Turns You On

A week passed after Amélie’s departure uneventfully, and then another. Eventually Lena lost track if you asked her, but in her mind she had reliably counted it to something like nine weeks three days and one hour. Every minute inched the hollows of her ribs towards a pain of cold nothingness. Gone was the hunger, it left with Amélie.

Winston was starting to question her health. It was inevitable, he could always tell when something bothered her. She frustratingly avoided him, cutting their chats short and avoiding any conversation that meant she had to go in depth about a topic. Lena just didn’t have it in her to care.

If there was any silver lining to the passage of time it was that her desk duty had been well over and she was back to taking cases. It felt good to distract herself with something meaningful, something she excelled at.

Was it stupid to be this hung up over something so brief and fleeting? Probably, but it didn’t change the fact that every morning coffee turned to ash in her mouth. It was how sympathetic Amélie had been that really laid the final nail for her. It was hard to find someone that didn’t immediately run at the sight of her, let alone had the guts to kiss her darkest parts and smile afterwards.

There was something in the woman that tickled Lena, something that made them the same, something that felt like the nerves of a person who had been through hell and back. The cold hard resolve of someone who had stared brutality in the face and walked away. She shook her head at the thought, no way, not Amélie.

Amélie was the type of girl you drove through the woods with on a dark calm night to star gaze. The type of girl who entwined her fingers in yours on a breezy wet day as you shared an umbrella on an empty street. The kind you romanced first and never second, who you brought to meet your folks for holidays, and settled with in a nice house for retirement. Lena thought of the mansion and chuckled, well maybe not entirely.

All of these things became a string that wound their way around her heart, and the further Amélie got, the more that string tugged on her aching muscle.

Lena found herself on a rare day, all her work was done, she was busy watching the office clock tick down and if she was honest it had a nice lull about it that threatened to put her to sleep. The desk before her vibrated, her phone dancing dangerously close to falling before she snapped it up and noticed an unread email. Anonymous sender, no subject data.

She grimaced at the thought of opening it. The last one had nearly cost her, her life, but it was nothing if not helpful in the end.

_What a mess you’ve gotten yourself in my poor lovesick perrito. Before I get into things, I wanted to thank you for that last little favor. You did a fantastic job, and as a result like I promised, Jack has been rather nice to you lately no? Don’t worry about that little video, it will never see the light of day._

_Unfortunately, I have to bring up another concern of mine, it’s bad for business to leave these things to chance and boy is it an interesting chance. I must admit, Cariño, you sure know how to pick them. I’ve attached a photo for you, don’t open it if you want to live in ignorance for the rest of your life. Ay, and why the warning? Well let’s just say I’d like to keep you around for a bit. I’ll call on you when I need you._

Lena sat frozen with her hand hovering over the attachment. Opening this message could be the worst mistake she’s ever made, and taking the warning her palms shook with sweat and she turned the phone off. She sighed rubbing her gloves up and down her face furiously and picking the phone up again, turning it on, but turning it right back off.

‘Ignorance is bliss’ she repeated like a mantra in her head. She flexed her fingers and stood nearly gagging on her anxiety. Lena made a beeline to Fareeha and sat with her legs open, resting her forearms on each knee. She ignored the woman’s questioning stare and breathed deeply, holding the phone out. “Don’t read it, just open the attachment and tell me if I want to know.”

Fareeha brought her eyebrows together and turned the phone on, doing as she was told before growing wide eyed and shifting her attention to Lena. “Lena…”

“Do I want to know? Fareeha just tell me that it’s a picture of a dead cat or something, please.”

Fareeha turned the phone off and set it down on her desk. She leaned forward and pulled Lena into a ferocious hug as the girl in her grip began to sob.

“Please, Fareeha. _Please_.”

Lena didn’t even have to look; her gut was alive with the fury of betrayal. She would eventually work up the courage to stomach a glance at the photo in the loneliness of her apartment with a quiet echo only she knew. A photo of two figures standing dangerously close, one unmistakably Amélie and the other Gabriel, amicably chatting about something with a pleased glint in their eyes. 

\--

Not even a few days later Lena’s cell rang, the name that haunted her since the email lit up on the screen. Any other day in the past two odd months she would have jumped at the chance to answer, now she let it rang. _One missed call from Amélie._

She brought her knees to her chest in bed and hugged them tightly. The phone vibrated again. _One new voicemail._ And again. _Amélie – Lena I’m in town for a few days give me a call when you…_

Her head dropped to rest against her knees and she sighed, her hands shaking as she reached for the phone and ground out a reply. _Hey sorry I’m too busy to chat, we can do dinner tonight if you like. I’ll cook, my place around 8? Here’s my address…_

Lena didn’t even bother with Amélie’s reply, knowing full well the other woman would easily accept the offer. She threw her sheets to the side and hopped out of bed, pulling her nearest case file and drawing out all the graphic crime scene photos. She went to work tacking them on her Livingroom wall, arranging them in a pattern to seem like a well thought out board of investigation.

Her stomach turned as each glossy eight and a half by eleven went up, blood alive on her wall, bits of scattered limbs poking through the dead foliage of a long-wintered tree. She shuddered at the thought of Amélie being the one to cause it and then calmly heading home to enjoy a nice glass of red wine or something equally unsettling.

Satisfied with her wall of gore, Lena went into her bedroom and retrieved a Glock from her closet, pulling back on the slide, and checking the magazine. She slapped it back in place and set it aside, moving towards the bathroom for a quick shower. It was quickly approaching eight, and she still had to throw together a decent outfit.

\--

Nearly eight on the dot, the wood door to Lena’s place was rapt with the sound of an elegant hand. She braced herself, positioning the gun in an innocuous way that Amélie wouldn’t notice and swung the door in, brilliant smile plastered in place. Her body tensed as those long arms reached out and pulled her into a tender kiss. It was almost romantic really.

Upon entering Lena’s apartment, Amélie didn’t bat an eye at the lack of aroma, she didn’t turn at the sight of the stove completely void of cookware, and when lead past the empty dining room table she stopped to view Lena’s art project without hesitation.

“An interesting installation, not necessarily something I’d hang up, but stirring all the same.” Amélie chuckled at the photos. “You really have been busy, sorry if I’m interrupting.”

“Never.”

Lena smiled and headed back into the kitchen, reaching for an old bottle of wine she’d kept for ages. It wasn’t particularly special, but someone had gifted it to her and she wasn’t tremendously in favor of drinking it alone. Back with two glasses, she delicately handed one to Amélie, setting hers down on the coffee table, and leaning as far back on the opposite side of the couch as comfortable.

“Why so distant, Chéri?”

Lena looked down at her untouched glass and smiled. “I’m afraid If I start to touch you I won’t stop.”

Amélie’s eyes lit up from behind the shadow of her glass and she set hers down as well, making her way across the couch and straddling Lena’s waist. “That is not something I am worried about.” She leaned down, closing the distance and wrapping a hand around the back of Lena’s neck, pulling her up into a slow kiss, pausing only when she felt the cold tell of metal against her hip.

“You know I wondered if these photos would give you stage fright, but I suppose it was hope more than anything. You seem just as eager to perform in front of them. There a reason that sort of thing turns you on, Amélie?”     

“And here I was hoping we’d have a wonderful reunion dinner.”

She pressed the gun more firmly against Amélie’s skin, the other woman unconcerned, leaned down again and drew her tongue along Lena’s neck.

The click of a safety going off stopped her trail and she sighed, “the gun is not foreplay, is it?”

Lena continued to stare as Amélie sighed and sat up.

“I’m not surprised you figured it out, but perhaps you would allow an explanation from me?”

She took the silence as a yes.

“I loved Gérard from the moment I met him - I was drawn to his charisma, his ability to light up a room. He was everything I wanted: passionate, willful, caring, everything I was not. I latched onto him like a parasite feeding off of his success and efforts to return France to its former glory after the Crisis.

“It was no accident, us meeting. Talon brought us together, for the sole purpose of turning Gérard into a puppet - their easy access to government control. He was like putty in my hands, and as soon as Gabriel approached him threatening to end Amélie’s life he turned his back on his dreams. Gérard stopped being the man I looked up to, the man I loved. He became a coward, he became a willing participant to murder. Gérard had more blood on his hands than I ever will by the end of it.

“And once his use ran out, Talon had one more job for me. I took pleasure in watching this shell of a man grasp feebly at my wrists, in watching a ghost desperately cling to a life full of pain and failure. It was a mercy killing in my eyes, Gérard died a long time ago, what was left achingly clung to a semblance of existence that ate away at itself from the inside. I stripped him of everything, and in the end I felt nothing. He was not the man I thought he was.”

Amélie brushed the back of her fingers along Lena’s jaw. “So if you must pass judgement on me, know that I gave France the justice it deserved. I killed a murderer, and a terrorist, and I feel no guilt for it.”

“You turned a good man into an abomination.”

“No man who is so easily swayed off the path of righteousness can truly call themselves good. If Gérard was the paramount of hope he claimed to be, then he would not have let Amélie stand in the way of his dreams. In the end, he was weak, he failed France.”

Lena shifted the gun more comfortably in her grasp. “Was I his replacement?”

Amélie frowned. “You were an accident, a wonderful mistake. It is true, at first I played with you. How easy I thought it would be to manipulate you into chasing a ghost. And it _was_ easy. Your unwavering sense of justice blinded you to the reality of the situation, although I don’t blame you for it. Even now you stand in my way of a clean escape.”

“You used me the entire time?”

“Non. The moment I knew I could not kill you was after we had sex, you were so raw with emotion, so embarrassingly sensitive to a plight that was out of your control. Despite everything you held no ill will towards anyone, you simply continued on your own path. I did not lie when I said you are special, Lena. It was in that moment, you reminded me of _him_ , and I realized you could be the one to save Amélie.

“She is a miserable girl clinging to her last shreds of humanity as Talon continues to pull at her from the shadows. She wants desperately to be a force of good in the world, but it is dark, so she clings to those who are, living vicariously through their light.” 

Lena sat up and dropped her hand to the side, the guns barrel off target and lightly slipping from her fingers.

“When you asked me if I knew what it felt like to be a monster… I know all too well. I am beyond saving, the sins I’ve committed are inexcusable by any punishment I could receive. All that lies before me is death.” She grabbed the gun from Lena and pressed it against the underside of the girl’s jaw before she could react. “And I too am a coward.”

Amélie leaned forward one last time pressing her lips to Lena’s forehead, and then her nose, and then her lips.

“It is a tragic circumstance we find ourselves in.” She stood slowly and set the gun on the table. “You’ve fallen madly for me knowing the result is death for either of us. And I find myself foolishly praying that it is not you.”

She headed for the door, as Lena struggled to get up, feebly holding onto the couch as if it would anchor her in reality. Her head was suddenly spinning.

“The next time you point a gun at me, make sure it’s loaded. Mine will be.”

And with that she was gone again leaving Lena painfully alone with her maddening silence.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> One more chapter to go before we're done y'all, then probably an epilogue.


	7. The Meaning of Home

“Have you spoken with Gabriel since you last saw him.”

Fareeha stopped dead in her tracks and turned to give Lena an incredulous stare. “Why would I speak with him?”

“I don’t know, you two were close once, right?”

Fareeha turned back around and kept walking towards the entrance of the station. It was far past closing on a Friday night, and they were just about the last two to head out. “Once, but that time is over.”

“You ever think about him?”

“Is this about Amélie?”

Lena opened her mouth to say something but decided against it and looked down at her feet.

Fareeha sighed and repositioned the strap at her shoulder, holding the door open for both of them to exit the building. “What sort of moral dilemma are you ruining yourself over now.”

“Would you kill Gabriel?”

The door almost hit Fareeha on her way out. She caught it at the last second. “I didn’t did I?”

“Do you think he deserves to die though?”

“That’s not up for me to decide.”

“So no.”

“Look.” Fareeha lead them over to her car, and she hit the alarm before opening the door and leaning against it. “His victims deserve justice. If justice results in his death, then...” Fareeha used her free hand to grip tightly at Lena’s shoulder. “Some people are beyond forgiveness.”

A small frown found its way to Lena’s lips and she looked down as Fareeha got in her car and started it up.

The driver window rolled down completely as she rested her forearm against the frame. “I know you, Lena. If you find yourself in that position, don’t think with your heart. I’ve buried far too many friends.”

Lena waved as Fareeha backed out and left the lot. She reached into her pockets and fished out her keys, dropping them and smacking her head on the door trying to retrieve them. “God shite bollocks.” Both of her hands went up to cover the tender skin and she growled forcefully shoving the keys into the lock and opening it.

She wasn’t inside for more than a good few seconds before a feminine voice called out behind her.

“Que onda?”

Lena instinctually reached for her belt, her stomach dropping immediately when her hand met empty air.

“Looking for this?” The voice called out as cool metal pressed against the back of her neck. “Hands up, Cariño.”  

She complied, shifting her eyes to the rear-view mirror, gritting her teeth at the shadow that covered the other woman’s face.

“Why so hostile? We’re friends, aren’t we?”

“You have a gun pointed at me.”

“Oh please.” The mysterious woman tossed it into Lena’s lap and leaned her forearm against the top of the seat before pressing forward and tapping a single index finger to Lena’s nose. “We both know you never load that thing.” 

Lena looked down at it in shock.

“What kind of cop carries around an empty gun anyway?”

Lena ignored the question and looked back in the mirror at what she was hoping was a set of eyes. “What do you want?”

“I wanted to meet you in person! Finally shake hands with the girl who’s got my friend higher than a piñata in Dorado square.” Lena’s eyebrows dropped into her vision. “Honestly I don’t know what you did to get that heart pumping again, I had thought it froze over ages ago.”

Lena’s head dipped forward as sharp nails raked through the back of her hair. She felt like her teeth were going to fall out with how tight the pressure of her jaw was. “Great you met me, now leave.”

“Ah, ah, ah.” The woman made a displeased sound with her tongue. “You’re only interested in what I have to say if it comes in an email, hm?”

Lena’s eyes shot open. “You!”

A dramatic bow went off in her back seat. 

Lena went to turn around, but found the hand in her hair was now painfully pulling at the follicles.

“Sorry, but I have to maintain some air of mystery.” The hand went back to softly stroking its way through her locks. “Anyway, the truth is, Amélie and I have a complicated relationship. She wouldn’t exactly let me live if she found out I was giving out all of her secrets. So as a show of good faith, I am here in the flesh to ask you for a favor. I’ll answer three questions, and in exchange, I want you to take care of her for me.”

“Take care of her?”

“However, you see fit. Two questions now by the way.”

Lena’s mouth fell open. “Well that’s not bloody fair is it?”

“Was that a question?”

“No it was rhetorical!”

“Amélie is bad for business, and by bad I mean she’s killing all of my resources. Technically I can’t do anything about it because my boss is her boss but…” she gave a dramatic shrug. “If anyone’s got a shot at her it’s you.”

Lena’s eyes flickered unfocused between the left and right meters on her dashboard. “You want me to kill her.”

The woman moved her hand from Lena’s head and wrapped it around the girl’s shoulder, tapping her long purple nails against Lena’s chest. “I want you to take care of her.” The tapping stopped. “Do we have a deal?”

Lena looked up into the mirror again with the most determined expression she could give. “I’m done killing.”

“You might want to reconsider.”

“Oh yeah, and why’s that?”

Lena could see the streetlights bounce off an exaggerated smirk. “Because Amélie doesn’t miss.” An index finger pushed against the back of her head as the woman made a popping sound. A drop of sweat crawled its way down her neck despite how cold it was outside.

“No one has to die.”

“But it’s not that simple.” Lena watched the figure shake her head back and forth while crossing her arms. “Why do you think Amélie is back in town?” she laughed. “She’s here to kill you, Cariño.”

Lena’s blood ran cold. “What?”

“That photo I sent you? The result of Amélie asking Gabriel to let her take the hit instead. She _wanted_ it.”

Lena looked down at her lap. “She took his hit?”

The woman made an affirmative noise smiling into the mirror, expression intensifying at the sight of Lena’s face hardening. _She knows where you live._

“You wouldn’t be lying right?”

“If I wanted you dead I’d do it right now.”

“Where can I find her?”

“She’s made her nest in a hotel downtown; it’s a little too rich for my tastes.”

“The address.” She grit through her teeth, knuckles going white around the steering wheel.

The mystery woman gave a mock laugh. “Why are you in such a hurry to die?” She clicked her tongue against the roof of her mouth and materialized a piece of paper in front of Lena’s face. “Do us all a favor and put some bullets in that thing.”

The backdoor opened and the woman got out, tapping on the side of the vehicle a few times before running off into the night. Lena released her grip on the wheel and dropped her forehead against it, taking shallow deep breaths.

There was some cosmic joke at play that kept putting her in harm’s way like this, or maybe she’s just too stupid to know when to quit. Her mind briefly flitted to Fareeha, weighing her options of avoiding death with a partner, but she didn’t want to drag her friend with her to the grave. No, this was her battle, time to end it. 

\--

Lena fidgeted with the gun tucked into the waistband of her pants as she made her way to the out of sight elevator. One flash of her badge was all the front desk needed to allow her access to the penthouse suite. She tried to ignore all the luxurious fixtures on her way in, grumbling under her breath at how unabashedly rich you had to be to stay at a place like this.

She swiped a card and the doors pulled aside allowing her in, dinging its confirmation of her destination and slowly approaching the top floor of the hotel. Lena bit at her lower lip, realizing there was no turning back.

The possibility that she was lied to did not make the sinking feeling in her stomach any better, although there was some relief to know that it was unlikely. Unless of course this mystery woman had some voyeuristic fetish for death. Lena wouldn’t put it past her.

The elevator gave a final sound, notifying her that the door would soon open, and she braced herself against the side button panel as they separated. Lena pulled the gun from her waistband and held it strongly in both hands, dipping the side of her head against the open doors and peering into the main room - it was empty.

She silently padded out, gun braced a little too tightly out in front of her. The main room might have been larger than her entire apartment, the thought made her heart thump. It was not the time to have a crisis about self-worth.

Off to the right was a kitchen, she dipped inside, swiftly bringing her gun first around corners as she made her way to a knife stand. She slipped the whole block under an arm, placing individual knives inconspicuously around the area and heading down an adjacent hall towards the last door slightly ajar at the far side.

Lena leaned up against the wall, peeking an eye through the crack, squinting as it contracted fiercely in the light of the room. It appeared empty. A gentle hand pushed the door inwards, as her right held the gun, sweeping the room as she entered. Empty. She trotted over to the master bath and cleared it as well.

Crossing back into the threshold of the bedroom her peripherals picked up a hard elbow flying towards her and she ducked rolling forward and twisting to pull the gun out of her pants.

Amélie seemed unsettlingly focused, her 9mm unmistakably trained at Lena’s heart. “You are more resourceful than I could have ever imagined.”

Lena’s chest was pumping air faster than she ever remembered. Her fingers itched, brain wracking itself to stall for time.

“Can’t say I did it all on my own.”

Amélie squinted at her suspiciously.

“Met a nice lady, Spanish accent, very into touching.”

Amélie’s eyes shifted off to the side briefly in thought and that was all Lena needed. She fired a shot, the bullet glancing off of the side of Amélie’s gun and ricocheting it backwards out of her hand. The taller woman recoiled in surprise, and she dove forward on top of Lena, pulling her occupied hand above her head and wrestling for control of the weapon.

Lena threw a left hook and it barely touched the side of Amélie’s jaw, snapping her head to the side. Lena’s gun fell to the ground as she took the opportunity to roll them over, breaking free and scrambling towards the door as a loud crack went off behind her, shot narrowly whizzing by her ringing ear.

Loud footsteps chased her to the kitchen as she dove behind the island counter top, frantically trying to remember where she hid all of the knives.

Amélie had Lena’s gun securely in her hand as she looked around the open room, eyes darting back and forth as she softly stepped her way around the half wall to the kitchen.

The screeching sound of wood on wood exploded against their ears as Lena ran at her while pushing the breakfast table, flipping it forward at Amélie who took it dead center, and fell back against the refrigerator door. The table flew back as she roughly kicked it away from her and stood, gun arm out as a cleaver came down on it, knocking the pistol away again.

She jumped backwards as Lena swung the cleaver wildly at her, slicing the loose fabric of her black long-sleeved v-neck across the abdomen. Amélie felt the cold hard tell of a wall behind her heel and she ducked her head right, barely missing the sharp metal that wedged itself into the wall behind her.

A wicked smile graced her lips, and she grabbed Lena by the waist, diving forward and body slamming her to the ground. The sound of bone meeting tile rang out as Lena’s head bounced against the floor in the fall, and she let out a small hiss of pain, hands reaching up to cradle it.

Amélie was fast. She sat up instantly, knees on either side of Lena’s hips and brought a swift jab down on the girls left eye, swelling it almost immediately.

Lena’s body spasmed and she sat up quickly, head colliding with Amélie’s perfect nose. Suddenly Lena’s vision was pulsing in the one good eye that remained, her head was swimming with a likely concussion, and she was unpleasantly dealing with blood flowing down her cheek. Not even sure if it was hers, she made a motion to stand, but her legs gave out and she only managed to trip against the kitchen counter. Her body curled in on itself as Amélie reappeared, blood covering the bottom half of her face.

Her nose was bent at an impossible angle and Lena’s adrenaline went wild with pride. At least if she died here Amélie would have to go the rest of her life with a fucked-up nose. Suddenly wet splashes hit her forehead as she registered the weight of a person sitting on her ribs.

It was getting harder to breathe. Lena tried to swallow, her throat bouncing against a tight set of hands as she realized she was going to be killed the same way as Gérard. Strangely fitting if she had time to think about it.

Consciousness was beginning to slip away, Lena barely had the strength to keep her eye open, but she saw one of her hands brush up against the side of Amélie’s face and tuck the lose hair there behind a delicate ear.

Lena smiled, thinking of all the times she imagined herself doing it during Amélie’s absence. Now she finally had the chance, and it would probably be the last thing she ever did. Her eyes drifted shut, hand dropping to the floor, then blackness.

\--

Lena roused herself from unconsciousness and blearily focused her eyes on the clock on her end table. It was nearly late morning, and she shifted tighter under the covers of her duvet, registering the full body pain that was evidence of her night.

Her eyes snapped open and she threw the duvet off, painfully forcing herself to sit up as her right eye darted to the lone figure sitting in the corner of the room, legs drawn to her chest. Amélie sat on a chair from the dining room; it was pulled up to the single window in Lena’s bedroom. She had clearly been watching her all night and looked exhausted.

Images briefed through Lena’s head as she remembered breaking her nose. The dark circles under her eyes could have just as easily been from that, and Lena tried to focus her vision to see that at some point Amélie had managed to reset the bone. Something in her stomach churned at the thought and she leaned off of her bed gagging, bile rising into her throat, but she managed to swallow it back down.

Amélie didn’t move from her spot in the corner, but she managed to whisper that there was Tylenol and water on the nightstand for Lena’s headache.

Lena was having a hard time processing things, hearing herself speak before registering the words. “… all night?”

“It is not advised to sleep with a concussion.” Amélie unwrapped herself from the chair and headed over to the bed, knocking out some Tylenol and holding them out for Lena. “I needed to make sure you did not fall into a coma.”

Lena did not make any movement and slowly laid back down, adjusting the atmosphere of the room. Her throat felt scratchy and bruised.

The taller woman sighed and put the pills down, running a hand across the top of her head. “Are you hungry?”

“I’m so sleepy, Amélie, I can’t keep my eyes open.”

“Go back to sleep, I’ll watch over you.”

Lena closed her eyes, pulling the duvet back over as Amélie moved the chair closer to the bed and sat back down. “Thank you… Amé…”

\--

A few hours later Lena opened her eyes again. The chair beside her bed was empty and she sat up, pulling the duvet covers around her shoulder and padding barefoot down the hall to the main living space.

She felt much like she looked in her oversized t-shirt and too small shorts, not batting an eye that her covers were dragging across her dirty floor with a swishing sound. Amélie was gone. Lena sighed and sat heavily on the couch, staring absently at the television across the room. Her mind drifted to the previous night, the back of her head ringing out with the strain and she grit her teeth, standing to get an ice pack or two.

The front door to her place opened slowly as Amélie pushed it with her back, hands full of brown bags, and she startled slightly at seeing Lena standing in front of the door, with her too big shirt and covers swallowing her small frame.

They stared at each other for a while before Amélie moved into the kitchen and set the bags down, sorting them amongst the fridge and various cabinets as Lena awkwardly watched just beyond the threshold.

“You bought me groceries?”

Amélie nodded. “You have nothing in this place except expired crackers and mayonnaise.” She set a dark box on the counter and turned, leaning a hip against it as she crossed her arms. “And I refuse to touch that sludge you call coffee.”

A small smile came to Lena’s lips. “Sorry not all of us can afford to import our beans from the French countryside.”

Amélie rolled her eyes and stepped forward, gently placing her hands on the back of Lena’s head tickling the hairs there. She applied small pressure and cocked her mouth to the side when Lena winced. She then held her left eye open, watching to see if the ball was moving around properly. “I will get you an icepack, go lay down, you still have a concussion.”

Lena made her way back to the couch, frustrating her companion by shoving the icepack up her shirt instead of resting it against her eye.

“Lena it’s for your face.”

“But it’s hot in here, Luv.”

“Then take your blanket off.” Amélie went back to the kitchen and started folding up all the bags and setting them neatly by the door to take out for recycling later.

Then she sat herself at the other end of the couch and turned on the television, more for ambient sound than anything.

“If you are feeling up to it, we should probably address some things about last night.”

Lena turned her head and looked at Amélie with her one eye, the other too swollen and discolored to be of use. “Sorry I shot at you.”

The other woman snorted in surprise laughter and covered her face with her hand. “If we make time to apologize for every attempt at murder, I will be here all day.” She sobered up and looked down at her laptop, the edge of which was sticking out slightly from beneath the loveseat. “Although I will say I did not go into last night expecting to murder you, so I apologize for how violent things got.”

“I did come at you first with a loaded gun.”

Amélie shook her head. “I could have easily disarmed you, but instead I let go of reason and fell into my conditioning.”

“You had the sense to stop in the end though.” Lena smiled. “I’m here because of it.”

She used her foot to slide the rest of the laptop deeper under the couch. “I spoke with Talon while you were asleep.”

The bile in Lena’s stomach started to rise again.

“I informed them that you have been neutralized as a threat.” She turned to look Lena in the eye. “As long as you abandon your interest in them, they will not pursue you anymore.”

“Great.” She tried to swallow what felt like a ball of cotton. “So you’re going back then – to Talon.” It wasn’t a question so much as a plea.

“For now, although when I return to France I will be propositioned by a few close friends of Gérard’s to take over for him. I will admit it is an enticing offer.”

Lena’s eye shot open in response.

“I do not guarantee anything, however.” She smiled at Lena’s reaction. “I know that you do not approve of my current employment.”

“Why the sudden change?”

Amélie rested her head against a hand propped on the arm of the couch by the crook of her elbow. “There has been a recent conflict of interest.”

“Oh?”

“It’s you, Lena.”

“O-oh…” Her face took on a dark shade of red as she pulled the comforter back around her shoulders.

Amélie stood and reached behind the couch, pulling a duffle bag from behind it and set it down on the loveseat. She arranged some things inside and bent down to retrieve the laptop, sliding it in as well. It zipped closed, and she threw a hard lock on the zippers, turning to run a hand over the top of her head. “My departure has understandably been expedited and I have been called back to HQ. Eventually I’ll make my way back to France. I have not been back since before Gérard’s passing.”

“Weren’t you there all that time you’ve been gone?”

Amélie shook her head. “Talon does not have a base in France. There was no reason for me to return, so I was stationed at one of their locations in northern Spain.”

“Doesn’t anyone question where you disappear to?”

“I was truthful when I said I have no family to speak of. And all of my tracks are expertly covered by internal affairs.” She shook her head slightly. “No one will question if I take an extended vacation in another country.”

“I suppose not.”

Amélie took a hesitant step forward and steeled herself. “Lena.”

The younger girl looked up, left eye painfully fighting to stay closed.

“I wish to return here, if I may.”

“What? I won’t stop ya if you had plans on coming back to America, Luv.”

“No, I meant…” She glanced off to the side, before bringing her eyes back. “Here, with you.”

Lena’s eyebrows shot up.

“I know that things have not been ideal, but I thought back to everything that lead me to this moment. I would not change any of it, because it gave me you.” She bit her lip. “There will be no justice for a lot of the lives I’ve taken, but maybe… I can repent in this way. And hopefully, if I do right by France, you can learn to forgive me.”

Lena stood up on still wobbly legs and slowly padded over to Amélie, reaching her hands around the taller woman’s midsection and squeezing slightly. With her head against the other woman’s breast, she could feel the rapid heartbeat underneath, and she closed her eyes, finally feeling hesitant arms hold her. “We’ve all done bad things in pursuit of what we call peace. I think the difference is our intentions and not the force that drives us.”

She pulled back and looked up at those golden irises.

“Justice is defined by the hand that claims it.”

Amélie reached up a hand and ruffled it through Lena’s deep brown locks. “I will return when justice has been done.”

Lena pressed her head forward again, eye stinging with a different kind of pain as a tear slid down her cheek. “I’m proud of you, Luv.”

\--

Fareeha threw a fit when Lena got to work the next day. She considered taking off, but felt decent enough to take it easy and not worry anyone. Dark aviators hid the majority of her bruising from the outside world, but when Jack demanded she remove them inside, Fareeha got a good look at all of the shoddy makeup covers that lined her neck and eye.

It took a while to calm her down, and the whole precinct was there to watch her go off in amusement. Those Amari were pretty passionate individuals. Lena smiled, giving Fareeha a big hug at the end of her speech and the taller woman held her arms crooked in surprise before sighing and giving a tight squeeze in return, happy that there would be no funerals in the coming days.

Angela had been significantly more reserved when it came to speech, but after demanding Lena visit her office for evaluation, she was sure her punishment came in the form of too rough hands digging at her chipped bones.

After that things settled into a familiar routine. Her body healed well, the effects of her encounter completely disappearing. Once in a while she would see a shadowy figure at the corner of her eye, but it didn’t alarm her. Lena had a feeling it was just Amélie’s way of checking up on her.

A month passed, then another, so many that the leaves of trees around town started to wilt and break off again. She resorted to wearing heavier coats to fight back against the chill. Her phone buzzed, alerting her to another new email from an anonymous sender. Lena had gotten so many of them over the course of the year, her smile grew at the thought of reading a new article about Amélie.

True to her word, the older woman had gone back to France and joined the parliament. Their mysterious friend would occasionally send her translated texts about what great progress Amélie was making in the unification of humans and Omnics. Violent crimes between the two dramatically decreased, and she was implementing new legislation that allowed foreign Omnics citizenship opportunities to help rebuild some of the more neglected areas that had fallen in the war. 

Confusingly the message she got was a photo of a planet ticket, with a subject text ‘Roses are her favorite’.

Lena’s eyes shot to the time on her phone and she looked up, frantically thinking of the best place to pick up flowers before sprinting down the street to her car.

The drive to the airport was nerve wracking. Her hair needed a cut, her outfit was a mess, and she wished she had time to redo her makeup, but as she swiftly headed past the visitor gates to the right area, her stomach decided to bubble in excitement. Any minute Amélie would be heading down that corridor.

Lena’s mind went a mile a minute thinking of all the things she wanted to say, not quite being able to settle on anything that accurately represented how she felt about all the good Amélie was doing. Her heart swelled with pride at being the catalyst for change that reformed her into the blinding light of good she always wanted to be.

A few rose petals fell to the floor as she realized she’d been gripping them too tightly around the top in her excitement. Then suddenly she saw her; everyone saw her. Time seemed to stop as her surroundings blurred into white noise. Amélie made her way quickly down the corridor with a stride that would have made Lena’s knees weak if she wasn’t already shaking.

They locked eyes, Amélie giving a brilliant smile as her heart fluttered upon seeing Lena waiting for her amongst the crowd, roses in hand. Lena thought she might die waiting, so she rushed forward and jumped into the taller woman’s arms, squeezing tighter for each embrace she missed out on over the last year.

The roses she’d so carefully picked out were angrily shedding their petals on the ground behind Amélie’s back, forgotten in the moment. Lena smiled through a few tears, laughing at the more pronounced accent Amélie had picked up after being home for so long. “God how I’ve missed you, Chéri.”

“I know, Love. I know.”  

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> That's the end folks! I've got some ideas for an epilogue in mind, but it'll probably be a lot of domestic fluff that doesn't fit the rest of the story, so if this chapter didn't quite fill the quota for you the next one will do that. 
> 
> I want to give a huge thanks to everyone who took the time to read this, even if you just glanced through it to kill time. It's been a while since I've been inspired enough to write about a couple, and I'm really happy to have seen this through to the end. 
> 
> Your support has been incredible to me, and I hope I've done right by you in wrapping this up. Until next time.


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